Officials of 2 bodies fail to appear before JDC to help unravel GH¢3.47m
Representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD), who were billed to appear before the Judgement Debt Commission (JDC), Wednesday to answer questions relating to the mystery surrounding the payment of GH¢3.47 million compensation to a timber merchant, Nana Emmanuel Woode, failed to show up.
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Nana Woode, who claimed the state confiscated his two companies, Holex Ghana Limited and Priorities Ghana Limited, located at Akim Oda in the Eastern Region around 1982, sued the state in 2005.
The failure of the Attorney-General’s (A-G’s) Department to defend the case led to the payment of GH¢3.47million (¢34.7 billion old cedis) to Nana Woode in 2006.
However, the Chief Investigation Officer in charge of Confiscated Assets at the Office of the President, Mr John Kweku Mensah, told the commission at its sitting on August 26, 2014, that the Confiscated Assets Committee (CAC) did not have any records on the confiscation of the two companies.
Mr Mensah, who indicated that he had worked at the Consficated Assets Committee (CAC), since 1982, said neither Holex nor Priorities had ever been in the records of the CAC.
Counsel for the commission, Mr Dometi Kofi Sokpor, said from the records, it was the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning which directed the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) to pay the GH¢3.47million compensation to Nana Woode.
Representatives of the two institutions were, therefore, expected to clarify the issue of the confiscation of the two timber companies and the subsequent payment of the GH¢3.47million compensation to Nana Woode at yesterday’s sitting of the commission.
No show
To the amazement of the Sole Commissioner, Mr Justice Yaw Apau, counsel for the commission said when he contacted officials of the CAGD, they said they were not aware of their invitation to appear before the commission yesterday.
Consequently, Justice Apau directed that a hearing notice be served on the Controller and Accountant General for the representative of the department to make an appearance on September 4, 2014.
In the case of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Sokpor said its officials would not pick calls from the commission.
“We tried to get in contact with the officials of the Ministry of Finance. Even though the phones rang, there were no responses,” he said.
Sole Commissioner worried
Justice Apau expressed worry about the continuous failure of the representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to appear before the commission.
He said since the Ministry of Finance was directly connected to the payment of judgement debts, representatives of the ministry needed to appear before the commission to clarify issues.
The Sole Commissioner said representatives of the Ministry of Finance used to be regular at the commission, but there was some semblance of laxity in the attitude of the ministry towards the work of the commission now.
He again complained that it was wrong for lawyers alone to represent the ministry instead of the technocrats who dealt directly with the issues.
Justice Apau, therefore, directed that a hearing notice be served on the chief director of the Ministry of Finance for the ministry’s representatives to make an appearance before the Commission on September 4, 2014.