An applause for the Attorney-General

“The Attorney-General has continued, in a very effective manner, the tradition under this administration of contesting every civil litigation against the state, and has avoided the numerous judgement debts that used to be given against the state.

The office, as a result, has saved the country over GH¢10 trillion.”

This shocking revelation was among the few made by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo when he presented the State of the Nation Address (SONA) last week to Parliament. 

Obviously, GH¢10 trillion is a staggering amount and the reaction of some members of the House on the day and the general public is, therefore, not surprising for varied reasons.

While the Graphic Business is equally shocked and alarmed by the quantum amount involved, the paper also wonders, just like many other well-meaning Ghanaians, how we got here as a nation?

Addressing the media a day after the SONA, the Attorney-General and minister of justice gave further and better particulars on the matter and it was eventually revealed that the President had even understated the figure because the GH¢10 trillion was actually for just one company and not the total of all judgement debts against the state.

Explaining further, one of the cases, according to AG, was a GH¢10 trillion judgment debt (specifically GH¢10,331,841,859,411.20) by African Automobile Company Limited against the then Ministry of Employment and Manpower and the A-G.

He explained that the said judgment arose out of a contract for the provision of automobile services rendered by the Africa Automobile Company Ltd to the Government of Ghana in 1996.

The paper is even more troubled and scandalised because the said GH¢10 trillion, as mentioned by the President, happens to be an understatement. The proper reckoning of how much has been saved actually shows that this government has saved the state more about GH¢14 trillion in judgment debts since 2020.

The Graphic Business finds this development not only scandalous but one that must be a national wake-up call to halt this canker where out of greed, a minute few, create room for such cases to reach these levels only for them to rip the taxpayer apart to satisfy their selfish interests.

The issue of judgement debts have been one of the major avenues through which some politicians, with the connivance of some public sector officials, work to loot the already depleted state coffers.

This has festered for long because we are fond of raising the issues but never work to halt this “money-sucking” practice.

At a time when the country is virtually on its belly waiting for the doors of the international capital markets to open for us to borrow to continue with stalled projects across the country, the last thing to hear is what the President and his AG has revealed.

The Graphic Business would like to applaud the AG for the hard work and dedication which has helped to save the country that whopping sum.

However, we are of the view that until we put the necessary measures in place to fish out and prosecute the evil souls behind such wild economic crimes, this horrible and disgraceful practice will not stop.

The paper urges the AG to set his investigative team in motion to name, shame and prosecute all persons behind these judgement debts against the nation and other cases which have cost the taxpayer so much.

To us, this practice deserves something much more radical to completely stop the practice because we, as a nation, have had enough of the dubious activities of this create, loot and share mentality of a few wicked ‘vampires’ in our society.

Once again, we say a big kudos to the AG and we expect all well- meaning Ghanaians to rally behind him to nip this canker in the bud.