[ 2012-07-10 ]

Alfred Vanderpuije

AMA houses to go to defray judgement debt
Barring any intervention by the government, seven
properties belonging to the Accra Metropolitan
Assembly (AMA) will be put up for auction soon.

The properties include offices of the AMA at No.1
Asafoatse Nettey Road and the official residence
of its chief executive.

Others are No. 6, 7th Avenue, Ridge, occupied by
the AMA’s Director of Budget, Mrs Lydia Sackey,
and the immediate past Deputy
Director of Human Resource, Mrs Moira Ewa.

The rest are Bungalow No. 4, 7th Avenue Close,
occupied by Mr Valentine Amedo, the Director of
Works; No. 5, 7th Avenue Close, Metro Coordinating
Director, Mr Sam Ayeh-Dartey; No. 3, 7th Avenue
Close (Main Block), Director of Finance, Mr Samuel
Aryee; No. 2, 8th Avenue (Main block), Director of
Waste Management, Mr Augustine N. Blay.

The intended sale of the properties follows
notices of auction placed on the said properties
by an Accra High Court following a 2008 Supreme
Court ruling in favour of City and Country Waste
Limited (CCWL), a waste management company whose
contract was allegedly terminated by the Kufuor
administration.

The company is demanding $6,575,928.52 in
judgement debt owed it by the AMA.

The notice on the properties issued by the
Sheriff’s Office, Fast Track/Automated Court and
dated March 3, 2012, read, “Notice is hereby that
in pursuance of a decree of the said court date
the 13th day of February, 2008…, in the above suit
(CCWL vs Accra Metropolitan Assembly), the
property of the said defendant, having been
seized, in the execution under writ fi.fa, dated
21st day of February, 2012, will be sold by public
auction on a date to be issued at 11 a.m. unless
the said decree shall be sooner satisfied, to
writ.“

Faced with the possibility of its entire
operations being thrown out on the streets of
Accra, the AMA last Saturday conveyed an emergency
meeting, during which it passed a resolution
appealing to the government, through the
Attorney-General’s Department, to “pay the
$6,575,928.52 judgement debt that the AMA owes
City and Country Waste Limited on its behalf to
enable the assembly to have respite to concentrate
on its better Ghana development activities”.

The four-point resolution signed by the Presiding
Member of the assembly, Mr Desmond Nii Addo
Binney, and Mr Sam Ayeh-Datey, the assembly’s
Secretary, stated that it accepted the Supreme
Court ruling of February 13, 2008 and had resolved
that “the assembly’s landed properties that have
been earmarked for sale at reserve prices to
defray the judgement debt be possibly avoided
before the stipulated auction date”.

“The AMA accepts that the Republic of Ghana
Supreme Court’s 13th February, 2008 ruling which
said the AMA should pay the amount owed the CCWL,
in addition to interests to be calculated on the
interest rate and exchange rate at the time the
contract was abrogated until the full amount owed
CCWL of $6,575,928.52,” it said.

It further stated that “the AMA, at its current
financial standing, did not have the financial
capacity and capability to pay the debt it owes
the CCWL as per the Supreme Court ruling”.

When the Daily Graphic visited the various
properties, almost all of them, with the exception
of the head office and the mayor’s residence where
the funeral of the chief executive’s wife was
going on, were locked up.

There was no sign of the occupants.

This is not the first time the CCWL is coming
after the AMA to enforce the court ruling.

In 2008, backed by the power of the courts, the
CCWL attached AMA’s equipment, vehicles and landed
property, including its head office and any
available property, to be auctioned to offset the
debt.

Also attached to the debt was the assembly’s bank
account.

The CCWL is said to have entered into a contract
with the AMA in December 1997 but the contract was
allegedly abrogated in 2001.

In the agreement, the AMA is said to have
contracted the CCWL to provide services for
pre-collection, collection and haulage of refuse
within Accra.

Under the agreement, waste collection and haulage
equipment for the provision of the services by the
CCWL was to be provided by the AMA and leased to
the company for a term of five years, while
landfill equipment was to be leased for seven
years.

The CCWL was to pay user fees to the AMA for the
equipment over five years from the inception of
the agreement for waste collection and haulage
equipment and over seven years for that of the
landfill equipment.

After the respective periods, the equipment was to
become the property of the CCWL.

During the pendency of the agreement, the CCWL
submitted various invoices to the AMA for payment
in respect of work done but the assembly paid only
a fraction of the invoices.

The CCWL, therefore, sued the AMA in 2002,
claiming GH¢12 million, being the cost of the
services it rendered to the assembly in two years
but which was in arrears at the time the contract
was abrogated.

The High Court granted the reliefs sought by the
CCWL and ordered the AMA to pay the amount.

Not satisfied, however, the AMA appealed against
the judgement but lost at the Court of Appeal.

It then proceeded to the Supreme Court where it
lost again.

The Supreme Court, presided over by Ms Justice
Sophia Akuffo, with Dr Justice S. K. Date-Bah, Mr
Justice J. Ansah, Mr Justice R. T. Aninakwah and
Mr Justice S. K. Asiamah as members, in a
unanimous decision on February 13, 2012, ordered
the AMA to pay the amount plus interest, which
amounted to GH¢29 million, by August this year.

In May 2008, the AMA made an application to the
Supreme Court to pay the money in installments but
was ordered to pay the initial amount of GH¢12
million by August the same year and spread the
remainder over one year.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision, lawyers
for the CCWL filed a writ of possession and
officials of the company started effecting the
court order.

A copy of the court’s order was then posted at the
AMA’s head office in Accra, with portions of the
order mandating the company to seize the
assembly’s property for public auction if it
failed to take steps to pay the debt.

With the AMA not fulfilling the court order,
officials of the CCWL stormed the AMA in September
2008 and carted away a number of Tata pick-ups and
computers belonging to the assembly.

Some of the items were returned later.

That was the last time anything public was heard
of the CCWL and its tango with the AMA over the
payment of the debt.

Source - Daily Graphic

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