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Ghana May Pay $55m Judgement Debt - Kofi Bentil

Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, says Parliament can save the country from losing $55million in a case a Chinese private company has filed against it in the Court of International Arbitration, if the state recalls the contract and fix the mistakes it created in the contract.

He said a mistake was made when the contract was given to another company while it was already being worked on.

He explained that the contract for the Accra Intelligent Traffic Management project had not been totally wiped off.

According to myjoyonline.com, he made the remarks on a radio discussion, telling the host of the programme, Samson Lardy Anyenini, that “I think Parliament now can do something to save this country the $55million.

His comment came followed the lawsuit Chinese company had filed against the Government of Ghana in the London courtto demand $55 million from the state.

The Chinese company was contracted to implement the Accra Intelligent Traffic Management project worth $100 million after Parliament’s approval in 2018.

The company worked on the provision and installation of some traffic management system.

Earlier on the programme, Mr Bentil had saidthe country was likely to lose the case and pay $55million because it wrongfully breached the contract it signed with Beijing Everyway, which was expected to handle the Accra Intelligent Traffic Management Project.

“The issue of this contract is not that it has been cancelled. It is that it has been re-awarded improperly and some people with their eyes open did it in such a way that Ghana now has the liability and we are likely to face that $55-million debt.”

“Anybody who looks at this arbitration knows that Ghana is going to lose, so we should really take a very serious view of it,” he said.

“It is my patriotic duty not to tell everybody that we will win, but to warn everybody and tell them that what we have done is wrong and these people are likely to win. If they win, we will lose $55million,” Mr Bentil said.

He said it would have been less upsetting for him if the country had been slapped with the judgement case because of some mistakes and errors in the contract.

“I have sighted warnings from the Vice President’s office suggesting that we should not do this. There were warnings from the Attorney General’s Department that we should watch this and many others.

“Even if we needed to cancel this, I think we could have done it in a way that will not leave us liable to pay $55million,” Mr Bentil said.

During the Appointments Committee vetting, the Minister-designate for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, admitted that his ministry had been served in the judgement case.

However, he failed to give details, explaining that “since that legal step has been taken, I would not want to comment on it until the matter is determined.”