Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday April 16, 2013
The Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment
of Judgement Debts yesterday heard how huge sums of money are paid as legal
fees for law firms that litigated on behalf of the government of Ghana abroad.
According to officials from the Bank of Ghana (BoG),
the payments of legal fees are not even part of the total judgement debt that
the courts award to litigants.
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 counsel for
the commission, Patrick Atta Opoku, an Assistant Director in charge of Foreign
Banking told Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau and provided the commission
with a report and a list containing legal fees paid as well as judgement debts
to litigants with foreign accounts.
The legal fees paid dated from 1998, 2002 to 2011
while the judgement debt payments dated from 1994 to 1996, 1998 to 2009 and
2011.
He explained that, the legal fees come about when
the government contract foreign law firms to handle cases for the country
outside the jurisdiction saying “in most cases they start with court
proceedings before a decision is taken to pay. The cost incurred in course of
the proceedings becomes the legal fees.”
Mr. Opoku said in the case of judgement debts, they only
act on the instructions of the Controller and Accountant-General and the
letters authorizing the payment mostly come from the Ministry of Finance and
Economic Planning through the Controller.
He said some of the legal fees are pending because
the courts had not yet ruled that judgement debts be paid.
When Justice Apau read through the amounts involved
in the payment of legal fees, he remarked “these are huge payments,” to which
Mr. Opoku said “we are only bankers executing instructions.”
The commission commended the BoG officials for the in-depth
research they conducted in the judgement debt payments.
Leslie Akrong, an Assistant Director in charge of
Domestic Banking who explained issues pertaining to the local front provided to
the commission documents covering judgement debt payments from 1996, 1997 to
2004, 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2011.
The documents covered dates of payment,
beneficiaries and reasons for the payments.
Mr. Akrong told the commission that in 2006 and 2008,
there were no payments of judgement debts locally.
Sitting continues today.
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