Forgery At Energy Ministry Linked To US$170 Million Judgment debt

The US$170 million Judgment debt slapped on Ghana by the London-based United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Tribunal, possibly happened because the former Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko has revealed the rampant forgery of documents at the Ministry.

Boakye Agyarko, in an interview on pro-government NET 2 TV channel revealed in an explosive indictment on the Akufo Addo administration that forgery was a regular affair at the Energy Ministry, “I saw a lot of things at the ministry. People forged my signature at the Ministry but because of my banking background I was able to detect it.”

Boakye Agyarko was is being fingered alongside the Akufo Addo cabinet as the orchestrators of the US$ 170million judgment debt claims he is in support of a probe into the circumstances that led to the damages slapped on Ghana.

 “By all means, so far as there is a crime why not. I am for investigations all through and through. People must be held accountable if found culpable. Lessons must be learnt,” Agyarko said.

However, Agyarko himself will have to explain his role in the contradictory messages sent during the abrogation of the energy contract of Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) which resulted in the judgment debt. 

GCGP was awarded the power plant contract in 2015 following the power crisis that hit the John Dramani Mahama administration, but the company did not meet the needed condition precedent, forcing the John Mahama administration to negotiate a cancellation of the contract with the company. 

Eventually, both parties reportedly agreed that GCGP should be paid US$ 18 million as a settlement for the cancelled contract.

However, the Mahama administration was kicked out in 2016 and the Akufo Addo administration which took over power delegated Godfred Dame and the then-Attorney General Gloria Akufo to dig up the ghost of GCGP.

On February 13, 2018, Boakye Agyarko had written to GCGP notifying the company of the intention of the Akufo Addo administration to terminate their contract downright for non-performance.

However, on April 12, 2018, Boakye Agyarko wrote another letter to the then Attorney-General Gloria Akufo, claiming the GCGP had refused to agree to the terms of the termination and insisted that the Akufo Addo administration fulfills its obligations and that the government was willing to sit at the negotiation table again with GCGP and restore their contract.

However, an adamant Gloria Akufo wrote a curt letter back to Boakye Agyarko on June 11, 2021, saying she will not allow the deferment because there was no way she could defer a contract that had been terminated.

“We are of the opinion that the Agreement having been abrogated cannot be negotiated for improved terms as it is no longer in existence,” Gloria Akufo dismissed Agyarko’s request. 

After that response and stalemate, GCGP headed for international arbitration and the Ghanaian government obliged under the tutelage of London-based law firm Omnia Strategy, which is owned by Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Since then, the comedy of errors, deliberate delays tactics characterising the activities of Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame and his team of international lawyers have reinforced speculations that were a hidden agenda by people close to power who used that impasse to directly fleece the country by causing the judgment debt.

Investigations by Whatsup News have revealed that GPCG is co-owned by President Akufo Addo’s direct nephew, Damian J. Duncan, who is the son of the President’s direct cousin-the 65-year-old Mrs. Adelaide Duncan Olagbaju. 

Whatsup News can confidently report that Damian Duncan is the Country Representative of the company that the convenient negligence of the Godfred Dame caused the US$ 170 million judgment debt against Ghana.

The entire process leading to Ghana’s loss of US$170 million is eerily indicative of a possible orchestration by the kitchen cabinet of President Akufo Addo, Whatsup News has gathered from insiders and paper trails.

Also, snippets of evidence are increasingly pointing to the fact that the entire abrogation by the Akufo Addo administration of a power contract owned by Duncan’s GCGP was an elaborate scheme that ended up with some government officials benefiting from the damages.

charade to fleece the country of huge sums that may end up in the pockets of family and friends of the President.

According to former Energy Minister, John Jinapor, the Akuffo Addo administration should be questioned for why it unilaterally dismissed the settled case to pay GCGP US$ 18 million and went ahead to abrogated the contract again without recourse to the previous administration that started the abrogation process, nor did they informing the Ghanaian parliament when they finally decided to scrap the contract.

Meanwhile, even though Omnia Strategy was the one that advised the Akufo Addo to head for international arbitration and was appointed as one of the government’s legal representatives, Omnia in collusion with Godfred Yeboah Dame practically abandoned the case at the UNCITRAL in what has reaffirmed suspicions that all along, they were not exactly committed to fighting for a better deal for Ghana at the arbitration court. 

Consequently, on June 8, 2021, UNCITRAL awarded US$170 million in damages to Duncan’s GPGC.

Details from the proceedings indicate that after protracted foot-dragging, the court had granted the Ghanaian side a 28-day window to finalise their argument, however, Mrs. Blair’s law firm appeared at the UNCITRAL on Day 25 of the 28-day window and asked for an extension of 56 days. The court granted part of the days asked and set March 8, 2021, as the new deadline in what the court considered enough concession for the Ghanaian side.

However, on the deadline, the Attorney-General of Ghana and his expensive team of international lawyers refused to show up. They rather showed up on April Fool’s Day, citing COVID-19 as their excuse for failing to meet the deadline. 

The judge in the case did not find this amusing and shut the door on their faces, describing their delay tactics as “significant and substantial” and that their excuse for failing to meet the deadline was “unreasonable and intrinsically weak”.

In pronouncing its verdict, the UNCITRA Tribunal slammed the impressive team of lawyers of the government of Ghana saying it had no sympathies for them in losing the case, and that the excuses proffered by AG Dame and his team were unreasonable and “intrinsically weak.”

The presiding judge, Justice Butcher said the Akufo Addo government’s delay was “significant and substantial”.