Court bailiffs on Monday, June 27, 2022, stormed the Cantonments office of Egyptian Hospital Engineering group, Euroget de-Invest, and confiscated assets of the company to offset a $5 million debt.
The action of the bailiffs and personnel of the Ghana Police Service was in the execution of a court order for Euroget to pay one of its subcontractors, Top International Engineering Ghana Limited, more than $8 million, representing outstanding balance and interests.
The company which agreed to pay the money in tranches of three, has since March defaulted leading to lawyers of Top Engineering securing an order for the confiscation of all movable and immovable assets of Euroget to offset the debt.
In December 2021, lawyers for the two parties reached an agreement on the payment plan for the $8 million debt. But Euroget in what has been described by industry players as its ‘typical bad faith,’ failed to honour that schedule after paying the first tranche.
Despite the promptings of the lawyers for Top Engineering, Euroget turned a deaf leading to another court action for the remaining amount which is more than $5 million.
Speaking to the media after the execution of the court order which saw the confiscation of vehicles, TV sets and desktop computers among others, a lawyer for the complainant, Seth Agyapong Mensah said the default in the payment has left them with no option but to resort to seizing assets of Euroget.
“When we had the last execution in December, they came back and had a discussion with us, so we agreed that they propose how they are going to pay and they said they are going to pay the remaining amount in 3 instalments.”
Explaining further, he said “the first one was supposed to be paid in December and around 24th December, they did. The second instalment was to be paid in March or March ending this year 2022, and then the third one would be at the end of May 2022. In fact, they defaulted on the second payment. That was the March ending one and so on the 11th of April, they wrote to us requesting that we give them a 25 working day grace period for them to sort some funds and then pay us.”
“We reluctantly agreed because we knew that they were going to default. But of course, we allowed that. We agreed with what they have proposed and then we gave them that period which was to end by 20th of May. 20th of May came. They did not pay and then at the end of May, which was when they were supposed to pay the third instalment, they also failed, so we had no option because in that agreement we also said that in spite of the fact that we have had this agreement in the event that you are not able to meet your obligations, we would go back and enforce the judgment. So they failed to honour their promise and of course, we had no option but to go into execution again. That’s why today we carried out this execution. As of now, they are supposed to give us roughly about $5.2 million that is outstanding now.”
Confiscated Items
Among some of the vehicles confiscated by the court, bailiffs include a Honda Pilot with registration number GE 724-12, a Toyota pickup registered GT6144-12, Honda Sonata with the license plate of DV 6037 H among others.
In addition, another Honda 4*4 packed on the premises of the company, two flat screen TV sets, computers and printers were impounded during the Monday exercise.
Background
The International Court of Arbitration in London of the International Chamber of Commerce ordered the firm constructing several hospitals in Ghana, Euroget De-Invest S.A., to pay one of its subcontractors, Top International Engineering Ghana Limited, more than $8 million, representing outstanding balance and interests. The dispute between the two firms is connected to two hospitals being constructed by Euroget — the 500-bed military hospital at Afari, Kumasi, and the 60-bed hospital in Konongo, both in the Ashanti Region.
Top Engineering, provided engineering services at the military hospital at a contract sum of more than $12 million, but Euroget paid it $7.5 million.
At the hospital in Konongo, Top Engineering said the contract sum was more than 7.5 million dollars but Euroget paid it 4.8 million dollars
In 2017, Top Engineering dragged Euroget to the Accra High Court, claiming breach of contract and seeking payment of the balance of the contract sum.
In October 2017, the High Court stayed proceedings and ordered the case sent to an arbitration panel of the Ghana Institution of Engineering for determination.
In September 2018, the arbitration panel of the Ghana Institution of Engineering gave its decision and gave an arbitration award in favour of Top Engineering.
Euroget rejected the arbitration panel’s decision and served Top Engineering with a notice of dissatisfaction.
The court subsequently ordered a freeze of Eurogets account with a little over $700 thousand realised to defray the cost.
The court also added that all movable and immovable assets, vehicles and other properties of Euroget be seized for auction to defray the cost of the fees adding up to 8 million dollars.
Source: TNR