August 9, 2008
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru & Matilda N.A Attram
A PRESSURE group has threatened to sue any Member of Parliament (MP), including the Speaker, who will approve the sale of the 70 per cent of Ghana Telecom (GT) shares to Vodafone, a British company.
A spokesperson for the group, Mr Bright Akwetey, said if they approved it, the group would cite the legislators for “intentionally causing financial loss to the state”.
Calling themselves Concerned Ghanaian Citizens Against the Sale of GT, they argued that the sale agreement “offends our national security, national sovereignty and the authority of the courts and the laws of this country”.
Therefore, it said, any MP, including the Speaker, who would approve the Vodafone agreement for implementation, would risk committing a ‘serious’ breach of faith which might have the potential of culminating in intentionally causing financial loss to the state.
The group outlined its stand at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday and stressed that, “we have enough evidence to establish that offence”.
They asked the government to abrogate the contract since the deal was not in the interest of the state and said Vodafone would pay $900 million for the 70 per cent GT shares, but apart from the 70 per cent shares, the government, by virtue of the provisions in Schedule 16 to the agreement, was handing over to Vodafone other state assets, which compromised national security.
Mr Akwetey, who is a legal practitioner, mentioned Voltacom (Volta Communications Company Limited), a communications company established by the Volta River Authority (VRA) as a separate business entity that provides communication services to other communication companies for a fee, as one of the companies to be transferred to Vodafone.
He said the VRA optical fibre network installed by VRA with public funds, which was incorporated within the VRA Electrical Transmission Network and used for distribution of electrical power to end users; the VRA fibre assets, which comprise all property equipment and assets relating to the VRA Fibre Network; and Fibreco, a company established by the National Communications Authority (NCA) as a communications backbone for the country, were some of the assets to be transferred to Vodafone.
He said giving Vodafone access to the VRA Electrical Transmission Network meant that it would take possession of the electrical transmission network owned by VRA, including lands, buildings, towers, cable, equipment and other assets.
Mr Akwetey said the VRA Electrical Transmission Network was an integral part of our country’s national security apparatus, while VRA was also a strategic national asset.
“We, therefore, cannot fathom why for $900 million the government should grant virtual unimpeded access to the electrical transmission network to Vodafone. Our national security is being seriously compromised,” he stressed.
According to him, there was an aspect of the sale agreement that amounted to a ‘total surrender of our sovereignty as a country to Vodafone, which relates to the manner of the transfer, not sale, of the five other public assets to Vodafone”.
On the challenge to the authority of the courts, Mr Akwetey said under the rubric, “No Injunction”, Article 6.1.6 of the agreement, stipulates that: “There shall not be any injunction or order that prohibits/restrains the sale of shares by GOG to the purchaser in particular or generally”.
That, he said, was tantamount to a complete ouster of the jurisdiction of the courts of the country in administering justice as far as the agreement was concerned.
Besides, he said, under Article 10.7 of the agreement, the government had undertaken to waive its rights to prosecute any of the officers of all the companies constituting the so-called Enlarged GT Group for any acts of corruption committed in the course of their duties.
Mr Akwetey said although the agreement was required to be governed by the laws of Ghana, the authority of the country’s courts to adjudicate on disputes or conflicts that might arise from the execution of the agreement had been placed at the doorstep of the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce.
An economist and co-spokesperson of the group, Nii Moi Thompson, proposed the recapitalisation of GT from the $300 million that the government was borrowing to accommodate Vodafone’s demands for debt-free assets, and called for the prosecution of GT management, including the Norwegian management team, for the adverse findings of financial improprieties made against them by the company’s internal auditors.
He called for depoliticisation of the management of GT and make it transparent, the purging of GT Board of Directors of political appointees and the preparation of GT for listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange and give Ghanaians the opportunity to own part of their national assets.
Mr Ofori Ampofo, who chaired the function, said the sale of state assets had not benefited the nation, hence the need for the Vodafone deal to be abrogated.