�We Had No Dealings With Woyome� - Consar, Michelletti

Two foreign construction companies which were involved in the construction of stadia for the 2008 African Cup of Nations, have denied dealing with Alfred Agbesi Woyome as an official of Waterville Holdings Limited. The Managing Directors of Consar Limited and Michelletti Company Limited, Mr Stefano Ramella Pezza and Mr Jimmy Castagna respectively, told the Judgement Debt Commission in Accra yesterday that they never dealt with Woyome in any official capacity as a representative of Waterville. Officials of the two companies, which were sub-contractors for Waterville during the reconstruction of the Accra and Kumasi stadia, were subpoenaed to appear before the commission to furnish it with their contract documents and the payment schedules between them and Waterville. The commission also wanted to establish whether there was a connection between Woyome and Waterville during the period under review. The first to appear was the MD of Consar, Mr Pezza, who told the commission that the company was sub-contracted to work on the Kumasi stadium. He explained that Watervillle was awarded the contract on condition that it would provide funds for its execution. That, he said, did not happen and the government stepped in to abrogate the contract with Waterville. As a result, Consar was asked to take over on condition that it would compensate Waterville for any cost it had incurred. Mr Pezza said his company paid Waterville $2.7 million as compensation for costs it had incurred in the execution of the contract and all the payments were made through bank transactions, and covered by receipts. Mr Pezza added that all transactions between Consar and Waterville were documented and the equipment used for the execution of the project was owned by Consar. When counsel for the commission, Mr Dometi Kofi-Sokpor, asked Mr Pezza whether he ever dealt with Alfred Agbesi Woyome, he explained that his company dealt with the MD of Waterville and not Woyome. The Managing Director of Michelletti, Mr Castagna, told the commission that his company was also asked to work on the Accra and El Wak stadia after the contract had been abrogated, and paid $950,000 as compensation to Waterville. He also said Michelletti owned the machinery used to execute the work. Mr Castagna indicated that he dealt directly with the MD of Waterville and although he casually met Woyome on two occasions, he was never told that Woyome had any connections with Waterville. The state is seeking to retrieve GH�51 million said to have been wrongfully paid to Woyome as judgment debt and Woyome is facing two counts of defrauding by false pretences and causing financial loss to the state.