Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
It has emerged that claimants for compensation in
the Adaklu and Abutia lands in the Volta Region got a total of GH¢780,089.80
through the effort of lawyer Tony Lithur.
Mr. Lithur represented the Adaklu families in the
compensation process according a memo he sent to the Ministry of Finance and
Economic Planning in 2009 which is available to the Commission of Enquiry
investigating the payment of judgement debts.
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.
BoG
Confirmation
Lesley Akrong, an Assistant Director at the Bank of
Ghana flanked by Saviour Kudze of the Legal Department of the Bank testified on
Monday that the GH¢780,089.80 was paid even though the commission says it had
been paid to ‘unidentified persons’ per documents available to it.
Mr. Akrong had said the payment instruction came
from the Controller on December 22, 2009 and they were asked to transfer the
amount from an account called Non-Road Arrears Account and admitted that the
names of the beneficiaries were not attached to the from the Controller.
“We were instructed to move money from one account
to another account and the authorization had come from the Controller,” he had said.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Finance represented by
Kwadwo Awua-Peasah who is Director in charge of External Resource Mobilization
(Bilateral) testified and said that there were four families (two each from
Adaklu and Abutia) involved in the claims and Mr. Lithur’s memo showed he was
representing the Adaklu group.
He said the memo indicated that military government
acquired an area called Kalakpa Site for a game reserve and was covered by Act
43 L.I. 1022 on June 27, 1975 adding that the payment release letter had been
written on December 18, 2009.
“The memo we have indicate that it was an overdue
compensation claim and an amount of GH¢104,981.05 was paid to the claimant
families in the 1970s and 1980s.”
He said the remaining portion was revalued at GH¢780,089.80
and the memo had said if the payment was not done by 2009 the land was going to
be valued again in 2010 adding “that might have compelled the minister to
facilitate the payment.”
SFO
(EOCO) Freeze
Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau then asked if the
ministry was aware that documents available to the commission indicated that
then Serious Fraud Office (SFO) now Economic and Organized Crime Organization
(EOCO) had written to the BoG on February 11, 2010 to stop the payment to the
Abutia families but the witness said he could not tell if it was done.
The commission then decided to invite EOCO for
verification.
Retired
Police Officers
Earlier, Lawyer Mrs Margaret Yaa Ntiriwaa Achiampong
who led over 700 police officer retired prematurely by the Ghana Police Service
in 1993 to claim about ¢36.9billion as compensation from the government
testified.
She said the officers had been compulsorily retired
with only ¢5million as pension but after studying the laws and updating herself
on relevant authorities, she proceeded to court to get default judgement for
eight out of nine officers in 1999 before initiating another mass action for
706 other and got another default judgement in 2005.
Mrs. Achiampong said the government initially paid ¢10billion
before paying the rest in 10 installments adding that she is currently leading
78 officers to fight for compensation and judgement was due soon.
She however, said she did not lead some reitired
police women to claim an amount of ¢1.1billion which was lodged in a Commercial
Bank Account at High Street, Accra.
Anthony K. Kokroko, a legal officer at the Ghana Police
Service who testified on the matter was disappointed the Attorney General’s
Department did not contest the matter saying “at least we should have filed
something even if it was clear that they were retired prematurely.”
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