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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