NO DOCUMENT FOR GH¢340,000 JUDGEMENT DEBT

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday , June 12, 2014

Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) says they cannot trace documents covering an amount of GH¢340,000 paid as compensation for judgement debt to some unknown persons.

Kwadwo Awua-Peasah, the ministry’s Director in charge of External Resource Mobilization (Bilateral) told the Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts that they are currently relying on the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to get more information on the transaction.

When the case was called yesterday, Mr. Awua-Peasah told Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau of the Court of Appeal that the Controller and Accountant General had informed the ministry that the claim for the payment had actually come from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

He said as a result, the Controller had informed MOFEP that they had written to MOFA requesting for documents on the transaction adding “until they do so, we would not like to make further comments on the matter.”

It emerged later at the commission that the GH¢340,000 was transferred from a Canadian Grant Account at the Bank of Ghana into an AGG/MOFA Account to be used for the payment of land compensation but it was not clear which land had been taken.

Mr. Awua-Peasah also testified on the compensation paid to the Carmichael Family in the Aveyime Livestock Project.

He said the release letter from the ministry was done on January 6, 2009 and transfer request from the Controller on April 8, 2009.

He further said the British High Commission sent a letter to the Controller asking them to transfer the compensation amount of $2.4million and $240,000 respectively to the accounts with the names Christopher Michel and a solicitor called Arkhust respectively.

He said he could not tell how the British High Commission came into the transaction but added that it was not what he called ‘double payment’ per documents available.

Justice Apau then said that the commission was very much interested in what led to the confiscation of the livestock project and the reason assigned.

Earlier, the Ministry of Education led by its Chief Director, Enock H. Cobbina and assisted by heads or representatives from all the 19 institutions under the ministry appeared before the commission.

Mr. Cobbina said currently there were suits pending against the ministry, Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET).