My attention was drawn to an interview granted to Joy FM by the CEO of STX Ghana, Mr. B. K. Asamoah. Reading it for myself on Joy FM's website, I was rather taken aback - as I thought the era of crony-capitalism died with the end of the golden age of business for the perfidious Kufuor & Co.
According to the report from Joy FM's website (cut and pasted here!): "The CEO of STX Engineering and Construction Company B. K Asamoah has broken his silence on his widely publicized dismissal.
In his first ever interview, Mr. Asamoah told Joy News, his Korean counterparts must go because they have failed to meet their target.
According to him, STX Ghana only went to Korea for two things - money and technology.
However months after President John Mills cut the sod for commencement of the project, there seems to have been little progress on the actual work except for the boardroom wrangling between the Koreans and their Ghanaian counterparts.
However Mr. Asamoah told Sammy Darko in an exclusive interview that his company has found new partners from America and has no need of the Koreans.
According to him they have secured a new American counterpart- Western Forms -, a technology provider to use a Mexican technology in the building of the houses.
He stated local contractors will be used in executing the project.
Mr. Asamoah dismissed assertions the deal will have to go back to Parliament, saying the exit of the Koreans should not have any impact on the project.
“The approval of the project was given STX Ghana not Korea," he said, adding “I don’t see anywhere in the agreement which says if the Koreans exited we should go back to Parliament.”
He said the Project is ongoing in Kwabenya and Burma Camp in Accra but said the one in the Police Depot will be delayed." End of the quotation from Joy FM's website.
How extraordinary. I do not know exactly what the court case between Mr. Asamoah and his erstwhile partners from STX Korea is supposed to resolve, but as it is in a court of law, one must be cautious about what one says about both entities.
However, with respect, surely, the destiny of the Ghanaian nation-state, is not a personal business opportunity for Mr. Asamoah and other tycoons of that ilk?
It may have been so in the past, but those days are long gone. In the Mills era, it is what will benefit a majority of Ghanaians that matter to President Mills - not what will make already rich crony-capitalists of the past, even wealthier.
Surely, Mr. Asamoah does not think that the representatives of the people of Ghana, sitting in Ghana's Parliament, and having approved an agreement on the basis of the capacity - financial, technical and otherwise - of STX Korea presented to it by him and STX Ghana, will remain unconcerned, when it is transferred by him to another business entity?
Has he not effectively killed the STX Ghana agreement, which was approved by the Parliament of Ghana, by saying that he has found new partners and no longer needs STX Korea: the very entity whose capacity ensured Parliamentary approval of the STX Ghana agreement?
Are those the sort of words uttered by a man of principle and integrity, who is the CEO of a business underpinned by an ethical ethos, I ask?
The government will do well to quickly distance itself from Mr. Asamoah and his STX Ghana - which despite being given opportunity after opportunity, has done nothing but embarrass the government, if truth be told.
They must have nothing to do with him again. Ditto his new American partners. If Mr. Asamoah and his new partners want to do business in Ghana, they are welcome to do so - assuming they will be solely responsible for financing all their projects here: from the financial markets without involving the Ghanaian nation-state in any way whatsoever. Period.
Ghana's sovereign guarantee is not something issued to business tycoons undertaking national projects, because of their good looks - and who can then transfer same to new foreign partners at a whim, because they are under the illusion that Parliament has no say in the matter: despite the changed circumstances created by the perfidy of those selfsame tycoons.
Mr. Asamoah must understand clearly that the Ghanaian nation-state is not his personal fiefdom.
The ministerial team responsible for the housing sector, must seize the opportunity Mr. Asamoah has given them to distance the government from him, rapidly. In the end, the people of Ghana will thank them for doing so - they must mark my words.
They must see this latest development in this most unedifying of sagas, as an opportunity to revive the State Housing Company Limited (SHC) - by getting them to set up a joint-venture with STX Korea.
Before that is done, 20 percent of SHC ought to be given to its management and workers, 20 percent sold on the Ghana Stock Exchange to enable ordinary Ghanaians benefit from it too (and help create a share-owning democracy in Ghana, in the process!), with the remaining 60 percent of the newly-restructured SHC being kept by the state.
Together with STX Korea and the government of South Korea, it should be possible for the government of Ghana to get the new joint-venture to find a cost-effective way to build the 90.000 houses for the security agencies and public servants, as well as affordable rental accommodation for ordinary people in Ghana.
Who knows, perhaps the government of South Korea could be persuaded to fund the entire project for 90, 000 public sector housing - in exchange for Ghana allowing South Korean energy companies to bid for all Kosmos Energy licenses that lapse: because that arrogant company fails to develop them.
It is time Mr. Asamoah learnt to risk his own money in the projects he dreams up. Ditto any foreign partners he succeeds in attracting to his schemes. It is also time the governments of Ghana (whatever their hue) stopped allowing themselves to be inveigled into dubious schemes, by smooth-talking tycoons.
Parliament must abrogate the STX agreement - because Mr. Asamoah's latest announcement effectively kills it. Period. A word to the wise...
Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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