Details are emerging about how the government through the Bank of Ghana was able to save the country over $1.1 billion (GH¢4.1 billion) out of the $1.2 billion (GH¢4.6 billion) that the erstwhile Mahama-led NDC administration earmarked for the setting up of Ghana Retail Payment Systems Infrastructure to take effect by 2017.
It is the same Ghana Retail Payment Systems Infrastructure encompassing the mobile payment systems interoperability architecture which Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his team helped to bring into being at the cost of at $4.5 million (GH¢17.1 million).
However, per the master agreement, Mr. Mahama and his NDC government agreed in 2016 to do the same thing at the cost of $1.2 billion (GH¢4.6 billion) under a build, operate and transfer deal, spread for 15 years, using a company called Sibton Switch Systems Limited.
Rogue Staff
A Bank of Ghana staff called Gilbert Addy, who was head of the Central Bank team that was supposed to liaise with Sibton Switch to ensure the execution of the project, ended up compromising his position by accepting to work against the country in favour of Sibton Switch, which was fronted by Mr. Mahama’s darling boy Roland Agambire of Rlg fame.
The BoG in September 2018, sacked Gilbert Addy, for receiving GH¢410,000 in bribes from Sibton Switch Systems Limited in 2016.
Per the Central Bank’s investigations, the GH¢410,000 was paid to Gilbert Addy through a shelf company called GIB JUST Systems Limited where he was also the director, in clear breach of the bank’s rules.
According to the BoG, Gilbert Addy was due to receive further payments of about $500,000 (GH¢2.7 million) as a result of a sham contract his company, GIB Just Systems, signed with Sibton Switch Limited when he was supposed to supervise them to ensure the right things were done.
Concealing Information
The BoG investigations also exposed the lengths Gilbert Addy went to conceal payments and the sham contract with Sibton Switch Limited from the Central Bank as he deleted all his email records and any evidence that could possibly link him to the fraudulent payments.
His inappropriate conduct only came to light when the BoG through its international lawyers were able to retrieve the deleted emails from the bank’s back-up systems.
Interestingly, the Economic and Organised Crime Organisation (EOCO) initial investigations into the Sibton Switch contract in 2017, failed to uncover the fraudulent payments.
However, BoG’s international legal counsel, Hogan Lovells, which led the investigation, was able to show that Sibton Switch Systems Limited was a company that Roland Agambire was heavily involved.
Mr. Agambire was the same man who said he was bringing the $10 billion Hope City projects which never materialised.
Liability Fraud
It turned out that the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) approval for the project provided that the Bank of Ghana’s maximum liability was to be GH¢300,000 but contrary to the approval, the corruptly procured contract with Sibton Switch provided that the Bank of Ghana had a huge potential liability of $478 million (GH¢2.6 billion) and that was the amount Sibton Switch based the claims on when they went to the London Court of International Arbitration against Ghana.
Bidding Process
It has also emerged that the tender price of Sibton Switch during the bidding process was 33 times more expensive than the next most expensive bid.
At the time they were sacking Gilbert Addy, the BoG had said in a statement that “it appears that the entire bidding process for the procurement of Sibton Switch Limited was managed with the knowledge of the previous leadership of the Bank of Ghana in 2016, who appeared to be under intense pressure to deliver the contract to Sibton Switch Limited.”
Spirited Defence
In May 2018, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Johnson P. Asiama, who worked under Mr. Mahama put up a spirited defence of the opposition NDC’s ‘dodgy’ contract to Sibton Switch.
He had said at a news conference that the contract, signed during his tenure, was not overpriced as being claimed, and accused some politicians of attacking his personality in the role he played in the deal.
“It is politicians taking over an issue which should be in the domain of the Central Bank. Politicians, back off this issue. There is no criminality. There is no role of government,” he claimed, adding, “Under the original contract there was no government involvement. It was the Central Bank in a commercial transaction with a client. If they have a problem, they have lawyers, they have professionals.”
He added, “Let the Central Bank speak; let them do their job. When you turn it into politics and then you hang corruption on my neck, you make me look bad, and I can’t sit down, I can’t sleep over that; I have to make it clear.”
Arbitration Process
Sibton Switch on April 9, 2018, filed a Request for Arbitration with the LCIA against the Bank of Ghana for breaching the Master Agreement for the Ghana Retail Payment Systems Infrastructure entered into by the two parties and demanded $478 million (GH¢2.6 billion) which the PPA had pegged at GH¢300,000 but had miraculously turned to $478 million in court.
In reviewing the contract, the new Management of the BoG reached the conclusion that Sibton had neither acquired the licence nor fulfilled the condition precedent for the effectiveness of the rights and obligations of the parties, and it was therefore terminated.
The BoG pushed that the contract awarded to Sibton Switch was one-sided in favour of Sibton Switch and was severely detrimental to the interests of Bank of Ghana.
On July 28, 2021, the tribunal issued an award in favour of the Bank of Ghana, dismissing all the claims brought by Sibton Switch Systems Limited.
The claims were dismissed due to the failure by Sibton Switch Systems Limited to comply with the orders of the Tribunal, including an earlier interim award made by the Tribunal on June 25, 2019 in favour of the Bank of Ghana, which required Sibton Switch to make an interim award payment for security of costs.
The final award also ordered Sibton Switch Systems Limited to pay to the Bank of Ghana in full, its costs of the arbitration, in respect of the Bank of Ghana’s legal fees.
Cynical View
NPP General Secretary, John Boadu, at a news conference last week to react to Mr. Mahama’s claims of corruption under the Akufo-Addo administration, had said that “is that the same Mahama whose government signed onto a half-baked contract of $1.2 billion for the Ghana Retail Payment Systems Infrastructure? Sibton Switch Systems Limited have just lost an arbitration demand for $478 million from Ghana for revoking that agreement. The Akufo-Addo administration did a far more enhanced project for only $4.5 million. $1.2 billion to $4.5 million.”
“On the facts of this case, John Mahama’s good friend, Roland Agambire was at the centre of being granted unbudgeted contracts without even PPA approval and paid upfront before services. He used some of the money for homes in Dubai and for paying media houses for NDC adverts for 2012. His biggest money heist was this Sibton contract. The fallout from the exposé was that the contract was awarded at a cost of GH¢4.6 billion under John Mahama,” he fired.
He also said that “what is even more remarkable about what has happened is that again, a lot of people were quoting billions of dollars and it became an issue of public debate, but this system has now been built for less than $4 million dollars under the NPP government. Is it not more worrying that, all dubious deals under Mahama were carried by the RLG man? Mahama advised Agambire to go into hiding after the elections. The NPP government saved the country billions of dollars which has helped the government channel resources into projects like Free SHS, Planting for Food and Jobs, 1D1F, etc.”