AAL APPEARS BEFORE JUDGEMENT DEBT COMMISSION

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu & Awudu Mahama

Thursday, Septemeber 19, 2013

Africa Automobile Limited (AAL) yesterday made a maiden appearance before the Commission of Enquiry set up to investigate the payments of Judgement Debt (JD) by the state.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of AAL Mohammed S. Hijazi appeared before the commission and supplied it with relevant documents for onward investigations into the payments.

In the past few days, AAL has come under public scrutiny since information reached the Sole-Commissioner that the vehicle dealer was able to secure huge sums running into million of cedis as judgement debts.

AAL successfully sued the Attorney-General and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for vehicles supplied to Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the 1990s.

Interestingly, the vehicle dealer did not attach any of the institutions that had received the vehicles to the suit, prompting Justice Yaw Apau, the Court of Appeal judge sitting as the Sole-Commissioner to query how AAL secured the judgement debts from the government without recourse to any of the institutions.

Mr. Hijazi submitted documents from the Commercial Court covering Suit Nos. RPC 193/2008, RPC 194/2008 and RPC 345/2007 which judgments were in January 2009.

He also submitted certificates of judgments and other rulings as well as other correspondence since 1995 to indicate they supplied the vehicles and were right in seeking for the payments.

Justice Apau then to Mr. Hijazi “we will examine the documents and the commission will get back to you at the right time.”

The Department of Urban Roads was also present at the commission to testify on their alleged indebtedness to AAL.

Philip Lartey, Deputy Director in charge of Finance and Administration admitted that AAL indeed supplied some vehicles to the department in the 1990s but said that it was under a World Bank project.

Without providing any document, Mr. Lartey said the World Bank at the time footed 90 percent of the bill while the Government of Ghana took 10 per cent adding “if my memory serves me right the World Bank fully paid for the supply of the vehicles.”

Justice Apau then asked him to delve into their archives to furnish the commission with the relevant documents to prove that they indeed paid AAL for supply and maintenance services.

Some of the state institutions involved have already appeared before the commission and have raised issues with the payments to AAL.

The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), Valuation Division of the Lands Commission and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) have all made appearances but have all raised issues with the payments.

While the BNI through its Head of Finance Godfred Agyapong has denied, the Chief Valuer Kwesi Bentsi-Enchil has said they did not have any transaction with AAL at least according to their records.

The Mandate

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 huge payments.

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.