Sole Commissioner criticises MDAs
The Sole Commissioner of the Judgement Debt Commission (JDC), Mr Justice Yaw Apau, has criticised government institutions for failing to provide the requisite information to the Attorney-General’s (A-G’s) Department to defend cases against the state.
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He said the failure of the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to provide information disenabled the A-G to enter strong defences.
That drawback, he said, culminated in default judgements against the state and the consequent payment of judgement debts.
Mr Justice Apau made the statement at the JDC sitting yesterday in reaction to some strong views that a private legal practitioner, Mr Kwaku Paintsil, shared about officers at the A-G Department.
Mr Paintsil, who was at the commission in respect of a case between the Alfred Addey family against the state over a parcel of land in Accra, indicated that many officers at the A-G Department were blameable for the many judgement debts that the state had incurred.
However, Mr Justice Apau disagreed with Mr Paintsil and indicated that when suits were initiated against MDAs, lawyers at the A-G Department normally wrote to the MDAs concerned for their responses, but they often failed to provide information on such cases .
As a result, he said, officers at the A-G Department normally filed an appearance but would not be able to continue with the case. He said a default judgement was, therefore, entered against the state.
“The A-G Department does not get the support from the MDAs whose actions give case to the suit. They will need the report of that ministry to make a strong defence,” he said.
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Legal practitioner
Mr Paintsil said it was clear in some of the cases that the state would not succeed in the courts.
He said instead of settling the cases with the people to save the state from incurring huge debts, the state prosecutors allowed the cases to proceed only for them to go against the state, before considering settlement.
He claimed that many lawyers at the A-G Department handled cases based on political consideration and not on professionalism.
The legal practitioner said there was an instance when a client that he had once defended was paid judgement debt twice by the state.
He said he had raised objections against that double payment but the state had not taken any steps to remedy the situation.
Mr Paintsil, therefore, suggested that committees be set up at the A-G’s Department to advise state prosecutors on how to approach cases against the state.
Other case
The Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Mr Wilfred Kwabena Anim Odame, also appeared before the commission with regard to the compensation payment to the Volta Basin flooded areas.
He told the commission that the processes for the payment of the compensation had been completed before he assumed office in 2012 as the acting Executive Secretary. He was confirmed only in July, 2014.
He said he only got involved when the fourth tranche of the compensation was being paid.
Mr Odame described a report by a professional group that investigated the processes leading to the payment of the compensation to the Volta Basin flooded areas as damaging to his person.
He, therefore, requested the commission to impress on the professionals to render an apology to him.
The lands around the Volta River were flooded, following the construction of the Akosombo Dam in 1965 and the communities who were affected were resettled by the state.
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However, some clans in Pai, Apaaso, Makango, Ahmandi and Krachi traditional areas, who were resettled after the submersion of their houses and farmlands went back to the government 50 years later to ask for compensation.
Consequently, Cabinet gave the approval on July 23, 2008, for a consolidated compensation totalling GH¢138 million for the various stools and families in the affected area.