Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Even though documents available to the Commission of
Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts indicate that a whooping
¢34billion (GH¢3.4million) was paid to one Nana Emmanuel Woode for the confiscation
of his companies, the institution responsible for divestiture says it knows
nothing about the transaction.
Asakkua Agambire, Executive Secretary of Divestiture
Implementation Committee (DIC) insisted yesterday that the DIC had nothing to
do with Holex Ghana Limited and Priorities Ghana Limited which were said to
have been confiscated from Nana Woode in the heat of the revolution.
According to documents, Nana Woode got judgement
debts around 2006 for the confiscation of his wood processing companies and the
government through the Controller and Accountant General’s Department authorized
the Bank of Ghana to release ¢34,758,343,331 to the claimant.
“Holex Ghana Limited and Priorities Ghana Limited
respectively have never been a subject for divestiture. We would think that at
the time that the companies were confiscated in those circumstances, it is most
likely they would have been handed over to the Confiscated Assets Committee
located at the Castle and not to the DIC,” Mr. Agambire explained.
“The Confiscated Assets Committee is still operating
with an officer at the Castle, Osu. We believe that they would be of assistance
to this commission in finding out what happened to these companies,” he said,
adding “as far as the DIC is concerned, they were not forwarded to us or listed
for divestiture.”
He said “I have not sighted any record of such
payment. The DIC definitely did not make the divestiture,” explaining that “sometimes,
when payments are made in a related divestiture issues, we may be informed but
we have not seen a record of this payment after a diligent search. The DIC does
not know anybody called Emmanuel Nana Woode their records.”
Sole Commisioner Justice Yaw Apau of the Court of
Appeal then cut in saying “on December 29, 2006, a letter for the Controller
and Accountant General directed Banking Department of the Bank of Ghana to
release funds for payment of outstanding judgement debt was copied to the DIC. The
letter mentioned Nana Emmanuel Woode as one of the people to be paid the sum of
¢34,758,343,331 as judgement debt payment and the DIC was copied.”
Mr. Agambire replied that “We believe that they
copied us because we were not of consequence. We were not directed to take any
action or not to take any action but if we search the records we might find a
copy of that letter.”
He added: “We were not in consequence of that letter
required to do anything. We were not consulted before the decision to pay was
taken. We were only informed to take note.”
Justice
Apau: If you had nothing to do with Nana Woode why were
you copied. Was the Controller of the view that DIC handled the confiscation of
his property?
Witness:
I believe so because our records show that the companies were never handed over
to us. In those days when companies were confiscated, they were handed as the
first step to the Confiscated Assets Committee. We did not receive confiscated
assets directly and we do not know why we were copied.
He suggested to the commission to request the
Confiscated Assets Committee to appear and throw more light on the issue.
Later, representatives of the Attorney General as
well as the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning who were scheduled to
testify on other matters could not make an appearance.
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