Wednesday, February 13, 2013

BoG OFFICIALS APPEAR BEFORE JUDGEMENT DEBT CHIEF


Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday February 13, 2013.

The Commission of Enquiry that is investigating the payment of Judgement Debts yesterday started taking evidence from officials of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) the outfit in charge of effecting the payments.

Three top officials including the heads of Foreign and Local Banking respectively as well as the Head of Legal Department, all were at the commission’s sitting to testify.

The ‘Commission of Enquiry into the payment of Judgement Debt and Akin’ under C.I. 79 to investigate the frivolous and dubious payments of huge monies to undeserving individuals and companies, was appointed by President John Dramani Mahama after public uproar over the payments in what has now come to be termed as Judgement Debts (JD).

Notable among them were payments made to CP (€94 million) and the never-ending case of GH¢51.2million parted to the self-styled National Democratic Candidate (NDC) financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, both of which many believed were dubious and frivolous.

Led in evidence by Dometi Kofi Sorkpor, the Head of Foreign Banking Patrick Atta Opoku who was the first to mount the witness’ box, said that although they were able to do some research, not all the documents covering payments on behalf of the government from 1992 to date were available.

“Due to the volumes of documents involved we will have to retrieve them from the archives,” he told Justice Yaw Apau of the Court of Appeal sitting as Sole-Commissioner.

He tendered in evidence the list of judgement debt payments into foreign accounts from 2002 to 2011 and added that “even with these, we cannot say we have exhausted the payments for those years.”

Mr. Opoku further tendered in evidence a list of Garnishee Orders which he said “could crystallised into judgement debts,” adding “these are payment orders against government accounts held at the bank.”

He said that all the Garnishee Orders are in Cedis except two in foreign currency one of which is in respect of the Isofoton case.

He again tendered in evidence all the letters from the Controller authorising the BoG on judgement debt payments.

He said that even if the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning writes to them asking them to make payments, they seek clearance from the Controller and Accountant-General before taking any action.

“We do not take steps to process payments if the Controller and Accountant-General has not given us the green light. We take instructions only from them.”

Mr. Opoku told the commission that after effecting payments, they notify the Controller and Accountant-General which had issued the orders for the payment to be made.

He said that all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have what he called Sub Consolidated Accounts which are likened to expenditure account.

When Leslie Akrong, Head of Domestic Banking took his turn, he told the commission that his outfit also receive payments instructions from the Controller and Accountant-General and not the Ministry of Finance.

He said that the Controller and Accountant-General assign reason to every payment order and which account the fund should be transferred to.

He tendered in evidence the domestic bank transfer advice and added that the central bank only deals with accounts of state institutions and not any private accounts.

He said that no authorisation for payment can come from outside the consolidated fund adding “we make sure we stick to the bank transfer advice.”

Later the Head of Legal Department of the central bank Mrs. Caroline Otoo explained the Garnishee Order to the commission when Justice Apau sought further clarifications.

She told the commission that it is the duty of the bank to hold onto monies that are affected by Garnishee Orders until all the legal wrangling are solved.

The officials later asked the commission for at least two months to gather more evidence on judgement debt payments which the court granted.
The commission asked them to appear before it on April 15, 2013.

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