Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Thursday February 14, 2013.
Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau,
investigating the payment of Judgement Debts has sent signal to the Ministry of
Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP) that the fact-finding body would rely
heavily on the ministry for its work.
He said “As for you (Ministry of Finance
and Economic Planning), you are the ministry holding the country’s money basket
so there will be nowhere to turn to than to come to you for you to explain
issues to us,” Justice Apau who doubles as Court of Appeal judge said at the
commission’s sitting at the Old Parliament House in Accra yesterday.
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,
a Chief Economics Officer at MoFEP Kwadwo Awua-Peasah appearing for the second
time, tendered in evidence a list of pay vouchers issued from 2000 to 2012 in
respect of the payments of judgement debts, settlement, compensations and
arbitrations.
“We have made notes on the list to
indicate which of them were not routed through the MoFEP.”
When asked by the Sole-Commissioner why
the government did not have a single channel for the payments of judgement
debt, settlement, compensations and arbitrations, the Chief Economics Officer
replied that claims could emanate from all sectors of the economy and there
different approaches to the payments.
“For those that are done through MoFEP,
they are claims that sometimes the Attorney-General (AG) asks us to process
payment. The other ones are compensations mostly prepared by the Lands
Commission.”
He said that “the onus is always on the
spending officer who is a Chief Director of any of the ministries to ensure
that payments are made.”
Mr. Awua-Peasah told the commission that
when the ministry issues the release letters for payments they send copies the
AG but when the payments are done they do not always notify the government’s
legal advisor because the process “are bound by cheques”.
He said that delay in the payments of
judgement debt, settlement, compensations and arbitrations are not deliberate
because “that is just at the time the liquidity comes in.”
He said that the evidence of payment
requested by the commission could best be answered by the Controller and
Accountant-General.
“Upon the request we realised that
function can best be played by the Controller and Accountant-General so we have
written to them asking them to inform the Bank of Ghana about it.”
Earlier, representative from the
Controller and Accountant-General’s Department testified at the commission.
James Ntim Amponsah, a deputy Controller
in charge of Treasuries, appearing for the second time, tendered in evidence a
list of payment vouchers from 1999 to 2007.
He however, said they were still
searching for documents covering 1993 to 1998 and asked for more time to be
able to search for the documents from their department and Public Records and
Archive Administration (PRAD).
The commission said it will announce its
next sitting date.
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