'WE DON'T KNOW PAYMENTS FOR KPETOE LANDS'

Colonel Edward Fiawoo leaves the witness' box

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said it is not aware of any payments as compensation to two families in Kpetoe in the Volta Region whose lands were taken by the government in the 1980s for the Ghana Armed Forces.

According to Colonel Edward Fiawoo, a staff officer at the Office of the Judge Advocate who testified on behalf of the Chief Director of MoD, there were no documents indicating the payment of compensation even though documents on the acquisition of the land were available.

Testifying before the Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau whose commission is investigating the payment of judgement debts Col Fiawoo said the land was 247.97 acres and was covered by E.I. 2 of 1983.

He said the value to be paid as compensation was had the value of ¢632 million as indicated by the Land Valuation Board and tendered in evidence all the documents covering the said land.

“We don’t have any records as to whether there were payments made to the claimants. We have have letters of acceptance by the claimants thanking the Land Valuation Board to commence payment of the amount.”

Kwesi Bensti-Entchill testifies

Col Fiawoo said that the government acquired the land for the border guards unit of the military at the time but since it had not been fully utilized, CEPS took a portion of it for use.

“The land is still in the name of the Ghana Armed Forces but a portion is being used by CEPS.”

New Twist

However, it turned out later that the usual bureaucracy in government business had ensured that payments were duly made by the claimants afterall by the Lands Commission without recourse to the military hierarchy.

Kwesi Bensti-Entchill, Chief Valuer in charge of Compensations at the Lands Commission who is a regular visitor to the commission admitted that payements were made in two installments to two affected families in Kpetoe.

Abubakari Millah represented Sky Consult

“Part payment of ¢400 million was made in October 1999 and in April 2000, another ¢232 million to the respective parties. I know that full payment was made,” he admitted.

He said “it has not been the usual practice to notify the beneficiary of the acquisition,” to explain the reason why the GAF was not notified when the compensation was paid.

Ghana Post Saga

Abubakari Millah, Chief Executive Officer of Sky Consult Limited which entered into an agreement with Ghana Post in 2005 to provide internal money transfer services also appeared before the commission.

He said in the four years that they executed the contract, they raked in GH¢6.3 million cash revenue after which they shared but not all the GH¢ 978,000 due them was paid and therefore had to resort to court action in 2009.

He said their contract was suspended by Ghana Post in 2008 but they did not received official confirmation on the reasons for the action.

Ghana Post Officials led by their solicitor Kwasi Adjenim-Boateng and Bernard Yaw Atta-Sonno also appeared but said they need sometime to put their documents together.

Kwasi Adjenim-Boateng and Bernard Yaw Atta-Sonno both from Ghana Post

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.