By Esther Awuah
 |
Elvis
Afriyie Ankrah – Minister for Youth and Sports
|
A CHIEF Director at the Ministry of Youth and
Sports was yesterday queried at the Judgment Debt hearing, over the payment of
a debt to a construction company.
It was gathered by the commission that the debt
paid to M/SEP Ghana Limited had increased to over 30 times the original amount in
barely a decade.
The debt, which was incurred by the Ministry
after it contracted M/SEP to rehabilitate a tennis court at the Accra Sports Stadium
in the year 2000, was initially GH¢5,053.20 but increased to GH¢177,664.09 in 2010.
Abdulai Yakubu, chief director at the Ministry
of Youth and Sports, attributed the development to the Ministry’s inability to raise
the GH¢5,053.20 at that time.
“The
Ministry did not have money to settle the contractor at that time,” he
emphasised.
He was subpoenaed to appear before the
Judgement Debt Commission to assist it establish why the Ministry paid the said
amount to the construction company.
Mr Yakubu, who was led in evidence by Dometi
Kofi Sorkpor counsel for the Commission, explained that his Ministry on January
7, 2000 awarded the said contract to M/SEP after Ghana was chosen to host the Euro
Africa Zone 2 tennis competition.
He noted that “the project which was in the sum
of GH¢69,718.08, was pre-financed by the company and completed within six weeks
of receiving the contract.
“The contractor was not paid immediately after
executing the contract because there was some documentation, which needed to be
sorted out. Thus the contractor was paid in three instalments.”
The first instalment, which was paid on October
22, 2001 was GH¢24,339.53. The subsequent amounts, GH¢33,826.29 and
GH¢9,486.75, were paid on November 6, 2001 and December 31, 2001 respectively.
Mr Yakubu further stated that a remainder of GH¢5,053.20,
was also not immediately paid, prompting M/SEP to serve the Attorney General
(AG) with the intention to sue the Ministry for GH¢227,664.09.
The AG and representatives of the Ministry then
held three meetings upon which it was “agreed that the company should be paid
GH¢177,664.09, an amount the company accepted in 2010 upon negotiation.”
Sole Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau, surprised at
the Ministry’s inability to settle the earlier debt, remarked, “So between 2001
and 2010 the Ministry could not get GH¢5,053.20 to pay the contractor? And
government had to later cough up GH¢177,664.09. Don’t you find it……I don’t even
know how to explain it.”
When asked whether the project was budgeted
for, Mr. Yakubu replied in the negative, explaining that “Ghana had the
opportunity to host the Africa Zone two tournament so we thought it was a very
bright opportunity to advance to the Zone one where we shall also be having
certain benefits. Due to the deadline given, the Ministry had to quickly take that
opportunity to prepare, so we did not budget for the project.
Once the project was not budgeted for, it was
difficult to source funds from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning
(MOFEP) for payment to be effected, hence the delay.”
In another development, Mr Yakubu upon request
from the Commission, provided supporting documents regarding payments that had
been made to certain individuals.
He explained that the Controller and Accountant
General in 2011 had mistakenly credited the account of the Ministry with GH¢38,119,023.95
and GH¢10,584,295 being payments to Waterville and Alfred Abgesi Woyome
respectively.
He said, “We only got to know about it when we
were doing our monthly reconciliations, and alerted the Controller and Accountant
Genera’s Department who later debited the Ministry’s account immediately.”
Next to appear before the Commission was Major
(Rtd) Samuel Mahama Tara, Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance and
Economic Planning (MOFEP), who was also subpoenaed to produce supporting
documents on compensation payments relating to the following persons: Abdul
Muzizz, Davis Kakra Mensah, Davis Panyin Mensah and Philip Agbodoga.
He stated that an amount of GH¢47,230 was
released to MOFEP to enable it to pay these persons, out of which an amount of
GH¢7,630 was paid to Mr. Agbodoga as compensation, after he was wrongfully
accused of robbery.
He noted further that he received a directive
from the AG’s department to pay the remaining GH¢39,600 belonging to the other
three persons through their counsel Kulendi & Co.
“There was a letter from the AG’s Department
authorising the payments that were to be made to the claimants through their
legal counsel, Kulendi & Co., which we did. The vouchers were prepared in
the name of the beneficiaries as instructed and the payment was duly effected
through their legal counsel,” Major Tara emphasised.
Sitting has been adjourned to July 24, 2013.
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