Tuesday, December 18, 2012

JUDGEMENT DEBT COMMISSION RESUMES SITTING


Justice Yaw Apau at the commission on Monday

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday December 18, 2012.
The Commission of Enquiry that is investigating the payment of Judgement Debts yesterday resumed public hearing after suspending sitting due to the elections.

On its maiden sitting on November 28, heads of institutions including the Auditor-General and Chief Director of Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning all appeared before Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau to give evidence. The Controller and Accountant-General and Solicitor-General were however represented.

The witnesses were not able to tender in evidence all the documents required by the commission and were given time to compile them but it appeared yesterday that due to the volumes of documents to be made available, the witnesses could still not fulfill their promises to provide everything.

A deputy Auditor-General Yao Agyei Sefa, representing the Auditor-General who had promised to furnish the commission a forensic audit report at the maiden sitting, told the commission that the forensic report could not be brought.

He told the commission that they had been able to make available audited reports based on the consolidated fund from 1993 to 1999 and 2002 to 2005 which the Auditor-General promised to submit at the maiden sitting.

He explained anytime special audit is done by the service it was forwarded to the Office of the President and the affected institutions on request.

Mr. Sefa also said that the Audit Service recently conducted what he called ‘Due diligence’ audit adding “We can still look around and furnish you with the other reports.”

When the Solicitor-General, Amma Abuakwaa Gaisie, took her turn she told the commission that due to the volumes of documents to be retrieved, they needed more time.

Per the commission’s instruction, the Solicitor-General is expected to tender in evidence all civil action against the state or any other state institutions with regards to the alleged indebtedness of the state or the institutions involved since the 1992 Constitution came into force and information on how the various suits were handled.

The commission also wants all actions that border on claims or damages (both liquidated and unliquidated) against the state or any of its institution arising from either breach of contract, statutory duties among other things since the 1992 Constitution came into force.

Furthermore, the fact-finding commission wants the Solicitor-General to update it on whether the matter (s) went to court and if yes, whether there were full trials and whether judgements were by consent and how consent were reached.

Finally, the commission wants evidence on whether payments were made per arbitration award or through negotiated settlements and how they were effected.

Mrs. Gaisie told the commission that she had put the compilation of the documents under her supervision and was ensuring that things are done right and on time.

She said she is compiling the instances leading to judgement debts into groups to enable the commission to appreciate the evidence much better.

The Solicitor-General tendered in evidence what she called ‘Table of judgement debts’ from 2009 but they had no suit numbers.

The commission accepted the document and asked the witness provide extensive evidence next time.
Sitting continues today.

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