HOT VIDEO: If you’re saying the cars are stolen, go and ask them – Wontumi replies Adom-Otchere

Ghanaian media personality and former Board Chairman of the Ghana Airports Company Ltd (GACL), Paul Adom-Otchere, has shared details of a conversation he allegedly had with Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, over claims that COCOBOD paid GH₵50 million to his company for a road project.

The issue centres around allegations that during the final days of the Akufo-Addo administration, COCOBOD made a large payment to Wontumi’s company, Hallmark Engineering, for road construction. Wontumi has since denied the allegations, describing them as propaganda.

Speaking on his Good Evening Ghana show on June 4, 2025, Adom-Otchere said:
“My concern when I was talking to his people, and himself, was, ‘But Chairman, why did you take $45 million from COCOBOD and not construct the road? What is the meaning of that?’”

According to Adom-Otchere, Wontumi responded:
“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 also raised questions about claims that Chairman Wontumi was using stolen cars.
He said, “So I also asked him, ‘What about the cars?’ Then he said, the people I bought the cars from — I have told 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 that Wontumi maintained COCOBOD does not pay contractors in advance. Instead, contractors are paid only after a project is completed and verified.

Meanwhile, recent media reports alleged that Hallmark Engineering received a significant payment from COCOBOD even after the Chief of Staff at the time, Julius Debrah, had directed that all contract payments be suspended during the transition period.

However, Wontumi, speaking to journalists in Accra on May 26 after being granted bail in a separate case involving alleged illegal mining, firmly denied receiving any such payment.
“It is absolutely untrue that I collected money from COCOBOD,” he said.

He explained that government contractors are expected to pre-finance projects and are reimbursed only after completion.
“If you are constructing a road, the government doesn’t give you the money upfront, you use your own funds,” he noted.

Wontumi further explained that after the project is completed, engineers from the Ghana Highways Authority and COCOBOD assess and value the work based on agreed contract terms.
“The contractor is reimbursed only after the road is completed,” he said.

According to him, while the contract required COCOBOD to pay within 28 days after completion, it actually took nearly three years for payment to be made.
“So COCOBOD cannot claim they do not owe me,” he concluded.