The Government of Ghana has been
sued by a Chinese company, Beijin Everyway for the abrogation of the Accra
Intelligent Traffic Management System contract.
In 2020, the contract for the project was
terminated with Beijing Everyway and re-awarded to Huawei under the supervision
of the National Security
Ministry.
Beijing Everyway is currently at the London
Court of International Arbitration seeking redress for the termination of the
contract.
This was revealed by Ranking Member on the
Road and Transport Committee of Parliament, Kwame Governs Agbodza in interview
with TV3’s Komla Kluste on
Monday June 27.
Mr Agbodza asked the government to take steps
to avert the impending financial loss to the state as the Minority in
Parliament fear of a looming $50 million judgment debt over the abrogation of
He said that “Somewhere in 2012 the government
of Ghana entered into this China Development Bank agreement with the Chinese
Government. Under that there are different components, part of those were to
improve traffic management in Accra.
“Subsequently, parliament approved commercial
agreement for Beijin Everyway to be the contractors of that component which
costs about 100million dollars. When government changed the programme was still
ongoing. We are told that the developers have been working together with the
Ministry of Road. In fact, the Ministry of Roads and Highways is the
parent ministry that has been supervising this project.
“You may also recall that the control centre
for this have been completed and inaugurated by President Akufo-Addo himself.
“But from 2019, it appears there have been
some challenges which led to a decision taken in 2020 for government to
unilaterally just decide that they were changing the contractor from Beijin
Everyway to Hwuawe.
“Interestingly, when they came to Parliament
it was the Ministry of
National Security that brought a new bill. We were surprised
because it was the Ministry pf Roads and Highways that introduced the bill
which we passed and the implementation has started.
“The result of that is that despite all the
arguments that were made both by the Civil society, the media and members of
Parliament, the Majority insisted that it was the right thing. In fact, we
insisted on finding out what the Attorney General’s opinion was, they told us
that Attorney General okayed the abrogation. It tuned out that as we speak,
Hwuawe, has taken over the project but nothing is happening.
“Secondly, the Beijin Everyway company has
sued Government of Ghana and as we speak they are in arbitration in London.
From what I know they are demanding anything close to 50million dollars in
damages and loss of revenues, legal costs and other things.”
Source:3news