New Twist To Judgment Debts

For about a year or so, Ghanaians have been inundated with news about how individuals and companies were paid huge sums of money from state coffers in what has been termed as judgment debts. Notable among them were payments made to CP (�94 million) and the never-ending case of GH�51.2million given to the self-styled National Democratic Candidate (NDC) financier Alfred Agbesi Woyome, all of which many believe were dubious and frivolous. As the debate over the legitimacy of the huge payments rage, a group of young professionals who formed the Centre for National Affairs (CNA) set out to investigate the judgment debt saga and have come out with startling revelations about how government officials are even refusing to execute a court order that has been entered in favour of the country. According to the CNA, what was disturbing about the situation was the fact that they were the ones that notified President John Dramani Mahama about a �3 million judgment that Ghana won at the Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes at the International Arbitration but because some top functionaries of the NDC were in bed with officials of a German company that went to the court in London to demand �140 million from Ghana but failed, the government had dragged its feet in filing to get the money. �This is a tip of the iceberg. The 3 million Euros is one of many cases we have investigated that our government has been asked by courts �both local and international�to make counter claims but they have refused for reasons best known to them. In fact, we have one classic case where about $70 million has been awarded to Ghana but the government is refusing to claim because that company is close to leading members of the government. �We are ready to pay dubious judgment debts but where we have also won cases, they are refusing to file to claim because it might affect their cronies,� Rocky Obeng, a policy analyst at CAN, said. Giving the chronology of events at a news conference in Accra, Mr. Obeng said, �We have always wanted to keep this to ourselves and assist the government to retrieve Ghana�s monies but we realised that the attitude of some government officials and state institutions mandated to do the job leaves much to be desired.�