STX Deal In Court

Posted: Daily Guide | August 3, 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The controversial STX Korea housing deal has suffered yet another serious setback, following an application filed at the Supreme Court by the National Youth Organizer of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Kwabena Bomfeh Jnr. aka Kabila, to restrain Parliament from considering the agreement.

In a suit dated August 2, 2010 against the Attorney General and the Speaker of Parliament, Kabila is praying the court for an interim injunction restraining government from introducing the proposed supplier's credit agreement between STX Engineering and Construction Ghana Limited.

The suit is preventing government from laying the agreement in Parliament for approval in accordance with Articles 181 of the 1992 Constitution until the hearing and final determination of the case.

He is also seeking a declaration that the amended and restated joint venture agreement between the STX and the HFC Bank Limited and government is void since it was not laid in Parliament and approved by it in accordance with the constitution.

Additionally, Mr. Bomfeh is seeking a declaration that the proposed Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) made and to be entered into between government and the EPC Contractor is an international business or economic transaction according to Ghana's Constitution.

Such a transaction would therefore be void and of no effect until it was laid before Parliament for approval.

Kabila is also seeking a relief for a declaration that unless the purported amended and restated joint venture agreements are laid before Parliament in accordance with Article 181, the consideration or purported laying and approval of the supplier's credit agreement are unconstitutional, void and of no legal consequence. The agreement is already before Parliament, originally slated for debate today before the House rises this evening. Parliament is expected to resume in October.