Ghanaian media personality and former Board Chairman of the Ghana Airports Company Ltd (GACL), Paul Adom-Otchere, has revealed details of a conversation he allegedly had with the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi.
This follows allegations of a GH₵50 million payment from the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to Wontumi’s company during the final days of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration for a road construction project, a claim Wontumi has strongly denied, describing it as mere propaganda.
Speaking on his Good Evening Ghana show on June 4, 2025, Adom-Otchere recounted, “My concern was when I was talking to his people, and himself (Wontumi), was that, ‘But Chairman, why did you take $45 million from COCOBOD and not construct the road? What is the meaning of that?’
“He replied, Me? Have you ever heard COCOBOD giving people money to construct roads in advance? When you construct the road, that is when your money is given to you. You construct it first. So, all these stories are propaganda.”
Adom-Otchere added that he was deeply concerned upon hearing the allegations and asked further questions about claims that Chairman Wontumi drives “stolen”cars.
“So, I also asked him, ‘What about the cars?’ Then he said, the people I bought the cars from I have told Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) who they are. I bought all my cars in Ghana. If you’re saying the cars are stolen, go and ask them. What wrong have I done?”
He reiterated Wontumi’s position that COCOBOD does not pay contractors in advance but, instead, contractors are paid after the completion and verification of the project.
Recent media reports claimed that Wontumi’s company, Hallmark Engineering, received a significant payment from COCOBOD despite a directive from the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, to suspend contract payments during the transition period.
However, Wontumi has dismissed the claims as false and misleading.
“It is absolutely untrue that I collected money from COCOBOD,” Wontumi told journalists in Accra on Monday, May 26, shortly after being granted bail in a separate case involving alleged illegal mining.
He explained that, like all government contractors, his company had to pre-finance the road construction project.
“If you are constructing a road, the government doesn’t give you the money upfront, you use your own funds,” he said.
Wontumi noted that the contractor is only reimbursed after the road is completed and assessed by engineers from the Ghana Highways Authority and COCOBOD, based on agreed rates.
“The contractor is reimbursed only after the road is completed,” he explained.
He added; “At that point, engineers from the Ghana Highways Authority and COCOBOD assess the project and value it according to the contract.”
He emphasised that the contract specified payment within 28 days after project completion but claimed COCOBOD took nearly three years to pay.
“So COCOBOD cannot claim they do not owe me,” he concluded.
AM/AME
