The attempt by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to accuse the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) of making a ‘dubious’ payment to Special Prosecutor Martin A.B.K. Amidu has backfired.
This is because documents available to DAILY GUIDE show that when the NDC was in office, it initiated and completed all processes leading to the payments of GH¢212,545.71 and later GH¢108,935.00 by the NPP administration to Mr. Amidu for his service as Attorney General in the Mills/Mahama government.
NDC Propaganda
Last week, the Minority NDC in Parliament accused the NPP government of paying what it called ‘dubious’ judgment debts to Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu and others.
It was Minority spokesperson on Finance and former Deputy Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson, who appeared to impute sinister motive in the payment to Mr. Amidu when he insisted that the government must give a breakdown of the payments made and also reveal the identities of the individuals and the companies who had received the judgment debts during the tenure of the NPP.
After the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta revealed that the Akufo-Addo administration had paid over GH¢280 million as judgment debts since it took office in 2017, Mr. Ato Forson told journalists that “on authority we are hearing that they have paid the likes of McDan; they have paid Bankswitch and they have paid even the Special Prosecutor an amount of judgment debt. As to whether they qualify to receive that amount, it is something we will have to investigate.”
“And that is why I requested the minister responsible for finance to give us a breakdown…I don’t think that in the case of the Special Prosecutor…I hear he went to court; there was a default judgment and the Special Prosecutor has been paid some amount for the fact that he was wrongfully sacked as minister of state.”
Main Action
Mr. Amidu after being removed from his position as Attorney General by then President JEA Mills when the Woyome judgement debt scandal broke, filed a suit against the government on July 30, 2013, asking among other reliefs, for damages for breach of contract of employment as well as an order directed at the government to pay his entitlement to terminal benefits of four months’ salary for every completed year of service or part plus the allocation of one official vehicle to be paid for by himself.
He also sought an order for the payment of 20% of basic salary in lieu of official accommodation from October 1, 2011 to April 30, 2012 together with interest and an order of cost of transportation from January 20, 2012 to April 30, 2012 to date of payment.
The NDC government, through then Attorney General, filed a statement of defence, admitting and denying some of the reliefs sought by Mr. Amidu and said his entitlement had since been calculated and a cheque was issued by the government to the then Citizen Vigilante.
On November 19, 2013, Mr. Amidu filed a reply, challenging some of the averments in the statement of defence that the NDC government filed.
The parties on September 2, 2014, came to terms of settlement and an entry of judgement was filed in the court presided over by Justcie K.A. Ofori Atta on September 11, 2014.
Entry Judgement
In the entry of judgement, the court had said among other things that “the defendant (government) undertakes to pay all salary arrears due the plaintiff (Mr. Amidu) from the last engagement, July 1, 2009 to January 2012, which was based on the level of a minister (MP) after making all the allowable deductions for social security, income and others.”
The court then awarded a cost of GH¢6,000 to Mr. Amidu.
Former Chief of Staff
In compliance with the court’s order, a letter to the Minister of Finance signed by then Chief of Staff Julius Debrah in 2015 said that their checks showed that a first instalment of GH¢108,935 was paid by the Ministry of Justice to Mr. Amidu’s account in December 2014 through the GIFMIS and a second instalment of GH¢212,545.71 was paid to the Chief of Staff’s office in September 2015 and they subsequently issued a cheque in the name of Mr. Amidu which was forwarded to the A-G’s Department to be forwarded to him.
“Unfortunately, the first instalment payment of GH¢108,935 could not be completed because the payee rejected (Mr. Amidu) the payment on grounds that the matter was pending in court,” adding “therefore, the payment of GH¢108,935 is still outstanding.”
“With the final determination of the case, it will be appreciated if you could release the sum of GH¢108,935 to Mr. Amidu to end the matter.”
On January 9, 2019, Mr. Amidu caused his lawyers to write to the current Chief of Staff acknowledging receipt of GH¢21,027.22 being remainder of his SSF deductions in line with the court’s ruling, saying “I signed for them personally on the evening of December 24, 2018.”
His only concern was that an aspect of the ruling regarding the payment of interest on accruing salaries, rent allowance, arrears and other payments owed him in accordance with Court Rule C.I. 52, had not been complied with and hoped it would be done to bring the matter to finality.
Source: Daily Guide
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
NDC Party is made up of Propagandists and Political Arm Robbers, their interest is to come to power amass wealth for themselves, their Girlfriends and Family members nothing else, they are always at the verge of misleading Ghanaians, this is the reason why I really like the NPP free SHS POLICY at least majority of Ghanaians will be literate, the NDC will find it very difficult to deceive them in the near future. NDC has nothing good to offer Ghanaians no body will vote for the CORRUPT NDC Party come December 2020 election.
Hmmm Equalisation
the evil has always being ndc nation wreckers such a thing wanting to rule Ghana again tweaakai
WHAT AT ALL HAS GHANA DONE WRONG TO DESERVE NDC? STRANGELY THEY GET OFF THEIR CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES AND DABBLE IN USELESSSESSS PROPAGANDA TO WIN POLITICAL POWER TO PLUNDER THE COUNTRY. WHEN IS THIS NONSENSEESSEE GOING TO STOP? CERTAINLY ITS MUST STOP ONE DAY.
I know Amidu will come out firing on all cylinders and the truth will be known. Just wait and see.
Ndc are satanic, if you want to know Satan go to ndc Headquarters! these eople are so wicked and evil that you can't just understand how they got to our presidency and never again ! PPP & CPP must come together to form a formidable party against the npp for Ghana to move forward. Ndc is not good for Ghana and 2020 is their last to end their noise making in our country !the massive endorsement of the npp and the humiliating of the ndc will silence their satanic ideas for Ghana to move forward. I've never seen a so called political party that hate the country that they want to live in like this ndc, they have nothing good for the country always spilling out poisonous venom to kill the development of Ghana! Onyame betua moka papa! Ato Forson is not somebody his constituents should be proud of, he is a disgrace and disgusting to his people always showing his ign*orance.If he were to be in my constituency even 10 votes would be a favour for him but I don't know how some people take politics to be else a failure shouldn't be entertained at all let alone left to contest again such a shame !
As usual, Daily Garba.ge has started its propaganda again. NDC never paid any Judgement Debt to Martin Amidu. Whenever the NPP is catch red-handed, they would fish for untruths to kill down the matter. NPP is rather being exposed big time.