UG slapped with $165m judgement debt

University of Ghana has been slapped with a jaw-dropping $165 million judgement debt to be paid to W. P. CAAREY Investment Trust for 2018 termination of development partnership agreement signed in 2016 to build a thousand (1000)-bed hostel and other auxiliary facilities.

The deal signed in 2016 was terminated in 2018 because University of Ghana failed to secure letters of credits to back the agreement.

The petitioner in the matter, known as W. P CARREY Investment Trust won the whooping $165 million awards after the University of Ghana wrongfully terminated the contract to construct, maintain four new facilities and thousand (1000) beds hostel on Ghana’s premier university Campus, Legon.

The development partnership agreement was highly lauded by University of Ghana’s statement published at its official website in 2016 as a landmark agreement by the then Vice Chancellor Prof. Ernest Aryeetey who stated that the “Overall social impacts of the project on Ghana’s socio-economic development cannot be underestimated “.

According to Prof. Aryeetey, “it was projected that thousands of additional lecturers, doctors, lawyers engineers, and other critical skills of professions both at the level of graduate and under graduate will be be trained as a direct results of the landmark agreement “.

However, University of Ghana was unable to raise the needed letters of credits for the contractual agreement, leading to the wrongful termination of the deal.

This led to a case review by a US learned Federal Justice upon a petition filed, who revealed that Prof. Aryeetey’s successor, Vice Chancellor Prof. Ebenezer Oduro-Owusu strongly opposed the agreement in February 2018, insisting that paying ten million dollars annually for twenty five years could put pressure on the university’s kitty, arguing that signatures were appended to the deal without due diligence.

In a sharp reaction, Prof Ernest Aryeetey in March 2018, issued a statement rubbishing the said allegations from Education Ministry and his successor Prof. Ebenezer Oduro-Owusu, accusing the two of inordinate desire to tarnish his hard won reputation.

The totality of all of these is that Ghana’s premier university, University of Ghana has been slapped with a whooping $165 judgement debt.

This jaw-dropping judgement debt comes at the time Government of Ghana has already been slapped with a whooping $170 million judgement to be paid to GPGC by UK Crown Court, another $174 million to be paid to Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom for wrongful collapse his GN Bank by the Bank of Ghana and many others.

Source : africaneditors.com