Martin Amidu Did Not Fight Alone In Waterville Case � AG

The Attorney General�s Department has sought to contradict suggestions that former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, was left alone in the fight to retrieve the judgment debt paid to Waterville Holdings saying the state provided him with the needed support leading to the landmark ruling in which the Supreme Court ordered Waterville Holdings to refund tens of millions of Euros to the state. A statement from the department signed by the Deputy Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Dr. Dominic Ayine stated that �the Attorney General�s office researched and supported the filing of processes leading to our identification with and support for Mr. Amidu.� Read below the full statement issued by the A-G's Dept ATTORNEY GENERAL ON WATERVILLE HOLDINGS JUDGMENT With reference to the recent Supreme Court judgment ordering the refund of an amount of about �40 million paid to Waterville Holdings, the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General�s Department wishes to state as follows: 1. Contrary to the impression created by various media reports that Mr. Martin Amidu was left on his own to fight this case against Waterville, the Attorney General�s office researched and supported the filing of processes leading to our identification with and support for Mr. Amidu in the matter of Martin Amidu vrs. Attorney General, Waterville (BVI) Holdings, Austro-‐Invest and Alfred Woyome. These are matters of public record and can be verified from the Registrar of the Supreme Court. 2. The Attorney General�s Office is extending similar support to Mr. Amidu in his case against the Attorney General, Isofotun SA and Anana-�‐Agyei Forson for which judgment is expected to be given this Friday June 21. In this instance, the Attorney General�s Office personally researched and supervised the filing of processes in support of Mr. Amidu. This is also a matter of public record and can be verified. 3. Prior to the institution of both cases by Mr. Amidu in the Supreme Court, the Attorney General�s Office had already initiated action in the High Court to set aside the consent judgments in the case against Woyome and Isofotun. These cases were put on hold when Mr. Amidu filed the two cases in the Supreme Court. 4. We also wish to assure the general public that the Attorney General�s Office has officially declared a zero tolerance policy for Judgment Debts improperly/ illegally obtained and has taken a number of steps to defend the State�s interest in that regard. A case in point is SWEATER and SOCKS vrs. AG, where the Attorney�General�s direct intervention saved the state a sum of $28.5 million. She personally led the Solicitor-�‐General and the Principal State Attorney to the High Court 9 of Her Ladyship, Mrs. Elizabeth Ankama to move the motion to set aside the payment order for an amount that the Bank of Ghana had set out a dedicated account to pay, after plaintiffs had garnisheed some Government Accounts. She also moved to deflect the Contempt Motion against the then acting Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Henry Wampah, in High Court 22 of His Lordship, JUSTICE Godwin Gabor. 5. There are countless instances in which Attorney General�s office has intervened to save the state millions of Cedis including but not limited to Rona Construction Limited v. Ehwiaa Sawmills, Attorney General in the Ashanti Region and Mahogany Furniture Limited v. Attorney General in the Western Region. 6. A monitoring and evaluation mechanism has been set up in the Attorney General�s Department to keep track of all cases involving the State in order to avert losses. 7. We wish to state that we have initiated processes to obtain a copy of the Judgment in order to study it to determine our next course of action. Finally we wish to express our belief in the work of the Sole Commissioner appointed by H.E. President John Dramani Mahama to look into the phenomenon of judgment debts. We believe this is the way to go as it would offer a more accurate picture and deeper appreciation of the problem and help put in place the necessary institutional reforms that will address the vexed issue of judgment debts once and for all. HON. DR. DOMINIC AYINE (MP) DEPUTY MINISTER FOR JUSTICE & ATTORNEY GENERAL ACCRA [June 18, 2013]