JUDGEMENT DEBT COMMISSIONER EXPLODES

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday April 8, 2014

Sole Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau yesterday became incensed at what he called undue politicization of ongoing proceedings at the Commission of Enquiry investigating the payments of judgement debts.

The court of Appeal judge particularly accused the media of allowing politicians the platform to extend their ‘political wings’ to the commission’s activities.

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 Congress (NDC) financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, both of which many believed were dubious and frivolous.

When sitting commenced yesterday, Justice Apau complained bitterly about the way and manner politicians were using the commission “as an extension of their political ball game,” and said this was being done through the media.

He said as a result of the political slants to emerging issues at the commission, prospective witnesses were reluctant to appear and testify.

“Don’t allow politicians to extend their wings here. We don’t want such sensational captions and do not be singling out witnesses who are appearing before the commission.”

“It is sad that we cannot live in this country without politicizing every single national issue. This commission has not been set up to target certain people but utterances of some politicians are making what we are doing here look as if we are targeting people.”

Justice Apau assured that the commission had been established to investigate the payments of judgement debts and it did not intend to go beyond its mandate and therefore asked politicians to back off.

Scheduled to appear before the commission was Attorney General/Solicitor General in the matter of ICC arbitration between Construction Pioneers (CP) and the Government of Ghana through the Ghana Highways Authority but the AG’s Department had written to say it was still searching for the documents and could not make an appearance.

Also absent at the commission was Managing Partner of a legal firm called General Law Consult who was to answer questions on the ICC arbitration between Construction Pioneers (CP) and the Government of Ghana through the Ghana Highways Authority.

The only body that made an appearance was the Ministry of Finance represented by their counsel Sarah Fafa Kpodo and Kwadwo Awua-Peasah, Director in charge of External Resource Mobilization (Bilateral) at the ministry to explain issues involving the Ghana Telecom and Telecom Malaysia transaction.

Ms. Kpodo told the commission that they found what she called the transaction endorsed settlement agreement but not the settlement agreement itself and made them available to the commission.

She said all the documents had been endorsed but on the signature page, the signatures of the officials were not there.

The ministry later tendered in evidence all letters and other correspondence relating to the issue.