By Esther Awuah
The Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of Judgement Debts yesterday heard how a huge sum of money was paid to a private company as judgment debt.
Kae Ghana Limited was paid an amount of ¢5, 458,700,000 (GH¢545,870) because the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) had insisted that it was not aware of a contract awarded the private company by Architectural & Engineering Services Limited (AESL) to undertake an irrigation project in the Northern Region.
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| Justice Yaw Apau, Sole Commissioner |
Led in evidence by Dometi Kofi Sorkpor counsel for the commission, Patrick Osew-Owusu, director of GIDA representing the Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, told the commission presided over by Justice Yaw Apau that Kae Ghana Limited was given a ¢12million (GH¢1,200) contract in 1984 by AESL to rehabilitate a small-scale irrigation project in the Northern Region.
He noted that the contract had to be terminated by GIDA in 1985 because it was not in the known.
“In 1984, the regional administration and AESL a rival engineering institution was reported to have awarded a contract on one of our projects to Kae Ghana Limited without our knowledge.“We had to terminate the contract because we award our own contracts so AESL cannot award a contract without our knowledge,” Osew-Owusu indicated.
He continued that the Authority was notified about the contract through its Regional Office in the Northern Region, and three months later the contract was suspended and eventually terminated.
He added that in 1991 Kae Ghana Limited subsequently sued the Attorney General and the Ministry of Agriculture, and was awarded an initial judgement debt of ¢41million (GH¢4,100) as cost.
However, the company after realizing that it had not been fairly treated, went back to court and was awarded the ¢5, 458, 70 (GH¢545,870) in 2007.
Justice Apau then asked the witness what he made of the huge amount paid as judgement debt to which Mr. Osew-Owusu said, “I would fault the AESL because they should have been mindful of their mandate and should not have gone ahead to award the contract”.
The Commissioner said there was the need to invite AESL and Kae Ghana Limited for their side of the case.
In a related development, Nana Owusu Akyaw Prempeh II, Worakesehene appeared before the commission to assist with an ongoing investigation into the case involving him and the Attorney General, Minister of Lands & Forestry, Lands Valuation Board and the State Housing Company (SHC) Limited.
The case was decided at the Kumasi High Court on August 26, 2008, in which Nana Prempeh was awarded a judgement debt of GH¢27million.
Nana Prempeh told the Commission that “in 1943 the then government of Ghana prevailed on the state to give a land for a hospital. Unfortunately, the hospital was relocated to a different site, and the project was abandoned”.
He added that the state did not return the land to its owners, which they later found had been handed over to the SHC and part to the Ghana Police Service for the construction of a barracks for its personnel.
He continued that, “We protested against the injustice done to us through various governments, and during former President Kufuor’s tenure, the Minister for Lands and Forestry directed the Land Valuation board that it was injustice done us. Because SHC was collecting ground rent on the land which did not belong to it”.
The then minister, he indicated, then directed the Lands Valuation Board(LVB) to pay the necessary compensation but they (LVB) was delaying, so the plaintiff decided to proceed to court to seek redress.
“Fortunately we won the case against the state and I was invited for settlement by the Attorney General’s Department with the earlier stated amount,” Nana Prempeh emphasized.
The ‘Commission of Enquiry into the payment of Judgement Debt and Akin’ under C.I. 79 was appointed by President John Dramani Mahama to investigate the payment of huge monies to individuals and companies, following a public uproar over payment of judgement debts.
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