SOLE COMMISSIONER ANGRY

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

It has emerged that a claimant who did not deserve compensation per documents at the Department of Urban Roads succeeded in taking home over ¢2billion from the government.

The claimant, Peter Abban had gone to court to obtain judgment debt under the claim that his property was demolished when the Kanda Highway in Accra was constructed.

The move incensed Sole Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau of the Court of Appeal who is heading a Commission of Enquiry to investigate the payment of Judgement Debts when he remarked “if people can take money for free where is the government going to find money to pay worker?”

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.

Kwadwo Awuah Peasah, Director in charge of External Resource Mobilization (Bilateral) at the Ministry of Finance appeared before the commission to confirm the payments made to Mr. Abban yesterday.

Led in evidence by Dometi Kofi Sorpkor, the commission’s counsel, Mr. Peasah said documents available indicated that it was on April 10, 2008 that the Attorney General’s Office wrote to the ministry giving background to the case and directing them to ensure the payment.

“We only complied with the directive of the AG by instructing us to process the balance of GH¢127,291 for payment to the claimant.”

He said the total judgement debt was GH¢264,643 out of which GH¢137,353 had already been paid and told the commission that the ministry was not aware that Mr. Abban’s name was not in the list of people who were to be paid compensation in respect of the project.

He also said the ministry was not aware the AG did not contest Mr. Abban’s case in court.

The Sole Commissioner then read a document indicating that the Department of Urban Roads had written that Mr. Abban was not entitled to compensation because his wall was not supposed to be part of the property demolished to pave way for the project.

“It was a default judgement,” the judge said, adding “the account of Urban Roads was garnisheed and that was why he was given that amount,” he revealed, saying “I do not want to get high pressure on some of these things.”

The Attorney General who was summoned to explain issues to the commission in respect of the matter had written to say the officer in charge of the docket in question was out of town while the Lands Commission’s representative was also not available.