Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Activities at the Commission of Enquiry
investigating the payment of judgement debts were halted yesterday due to the
unavailability of witnesses.
Representatives of agencies subpoenaed to testify before
the Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau of the Court of Appeal failed to appear even
though they had been duly served with the processes.
As a result, Dometi Kofi Sokpor, counsel for the
commission apologized to the public and journalists detailed to cover the
proceedings and promised to expedite action on cases filed.
Representatives from the Ministry of Food and
Agriculture and Ghana Highway Authority respectively were expected to testify
but failed to turn up.
The Ministry of Agriculture was to testify in the
case in which Delta Foods, a Ghanaian corporation that was in contract with the
government to sell corn that would be purchased in the United States and
delivered was paid a whooping GH¢20.3 billion as judgement debt in 1999.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Highway
Authority on the other hand was expected to tender in evidence all construction
certificates issued to Construction Pioneers (CP) from 1991 to 2012.
Instances of ‘We are still searching for documents’
and ‘Please give us more time to put our things together’ from agencies and
institutions appearing before the commission are replete with the daily proceedings.
Mandate
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 in late September 2012 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.
Timeframe
The commission which was set up in late September
2012, commenced preparatory works on October 8, 2012 before starting full public
sittings on November 28, 2012.
It had a period of 12 months (Around November 2013)
to submit its report. However, due to the fire accident that rendered the Old
Parliament House in Accra where the commission conducted proceedings,
inhabitable, the President gave the Sole-Commissioner an extension of time.
It is not clear how much time was extended to the
commission but sources say they will conclude public sittings by August, 2014.
With the
commission’s recommendation the government expect that “the instances where
public funds are utilized to make payments in satisfaction of judgment debts
and public debts arising from akin processes are limited; government does not
incur undue financial losses when it does business with private persons or
institutions.”
Aveyime
Land
At its sitting on Tuesday, the Lands Commission said
claimants are hotly pursuing them since news broke that the Carmichael family
had received a compensation of GH¢3.2million and GH¢530,628.44 ($2.4million) in
respect of the Aveyime lands acquired by the government in the 1970s.
The Commission heard how the government in 2009
released the amount to the Carmichael family who owned the Messrs Bator
Agricultural Industry Limited cattle ranch, leaving out the indigenous
claimants.
Conflict
Resolution
The Chief Valuer in charge of compensation at the
Valuation Division of the Lands Commission Kwesi Kobea Bentsi-Enchil told
Justice Apau that although the claimants are hotly pursuing them,
“we always refer to them that until they resolve their conflict, we cannot
process their claims any further.”
He said there are 11 claimants in total out of which
the Carmichael family was paid and added that “Traditionally, the office has held
back all claims until all conflicts are resolved to make sure that we do not
stray into other areas and also that the office will not be cited for
negligence in any form.”
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