Focus attention on A-G’s Department - Sole Commissioner
The Sole Commissioner of the Judgement Debt Commission, Mr Justice Yaw Apau, yesterday charged the media to focus their attention on the activities of the Attorney-General’s Department to ensure that the officers there lived up to their duties and responsibilities.
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According to him, the lack of an effective mechanism to check the output of that department had led to so much of the taxpayer’s money going down the drain through default judgements in the courts.
For him, instead of the media giving space to the parties involved in judgement debt issues to trade accusations and counter-accusations, the media would do the country a lot of good if they focused their searchlight on the A-G’s Department to ensure that the country had value for money.
De-couple A-G from Justice Ministry
In the same vein, Mr Justice Apau re-echoed the recommendation by the Constitutional Review Committee for the de-coupling of the Attorney-General’s position from that of the Minister of Justice, saying, “We should have an Attorney General who is very serious about state cases because there is no supervision of the lawyers who work at the Attorney-General’s office.”
According to him, “it is high time the state took a look at the calibre of lawyers it recruits into the A-G’s Department. Either by design or accident, we always have default judgements, but we are not concerned why our money has been going waste for so many years”.
Background
Mr Justice Apau was reacting to the case in which Mr Peter Abban had asserted that his property was destroyed during the construction of the Kanda Overpass and, therefore, went to court and managed to secure a default judgement debt of GH¢364,644.
Mr Abban succeeded in getting the accounts of the Urban Roads Department (URD), which had executed the job, together with APB Terra Ventures, a foreign construction firm, embargoed, following which the Bank of Ghana paid an initial GH¢137,353, after which the A-G’s Department directed the Ministry of Finance to pay the outstanding balance of GH¢129,291 to Mr Abban.
When the case was called at the commission, the Director in charge of External Resource Mobilisation at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Awuah Peasah, said the ministry was directed by the A-G’s Department to effect payment to Mr Abban, which it did.
Mr Justice Apau then asked him if he was aware that the URD had written to the effect that Mr Abban’s wall stood on land earmarked for a road and he, therefore, deserved no compensation, more so when there had not been any representation by the A-G in court.
Mr Peasah answered in the affirmative but added that the ministry had played by the instructions received.
A-G’s Department negligent?
“This is what I have been saying, ‘’default! default!! default!!!’. Abban’s name was not on the list of people entitled to compensation. His wall was in the road but he went to court and had a default judgment, which is almost two billion. All these years, cases involved the government but the A-G will not bother. What is this? What kind of country are we living in? If people can take our money free like that, then how can the state find money to pay us?” Mr Justice Apau asked.
Writer’s email: victor.kwawukume@graphic.com.gh