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Minority misconstrues statement on
judgment debts - Betty Mould-Iddrisu
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh,
Ghanadot
Accra, Dec 23, Ghanadot -
The Minister for Justice and Attorney
General, Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu yesterday
broke her long silence on the marathon
debate between the Minority New Patriotic
Party (NPP) Members of Parliament (MPs) and
the government over the huge judgment debts
that the country is battling with.
Responding to the minority statement on the
judgment debts as contained in the 2010
budget at press conference in Accra, Mrs.
Betty Mould-Iddrisu stated categorically
that the Former Minister for Justice and
Attorney General, “Joe Ghartey misconstrued
the substance of the statements made by the
Minister of Finance, which were quoted from
paragraphs 85 and 86 of the budget
statement”.
She emphasized that the Minister of Finance
and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor
did not blame any political party for
creating the judgment debts. According to
her, some of those debts, the Minister
Finance said, dated back to the independence
period, explaining that Dr. Duffuor’s main
point was that, irrespective of how these
judgment debts arose, they have been badly
managed over the past eight years.
Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu flanked her Deputy,
Mr. Burton Oduro was quick to lament that
there were situations where the courts had
ruled that government should make certain
payments and yet the NPP for political and
other reasons refused to pay those accounts.
This she mentioned Concrete Pioneer (CP)
case which the Mr. Joe Ghartey claimed was
tainted with fraud. However, the former
Minister for Justice and Attorney General
and current Minority Spokesperson on Legal
Affairs had to admit that foreign arbitral
tribunals held the NPP government liable for
abrogating four contracts the company was
executing.
Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu who spoke
passionately added that the NPP government
refused to settle payment until the CP
obtained an enforcement order of the
arbitral award and the NPP government was
forced to settle to the tune of 4million
pounds.
“As I speak to you now there is an amount of
$581,333.00 and 50,778.37 pounds sterling
which is outstanding in respect of legal
fees for our foreign solicitors handling
this matter”, she disclosed.
In the case of Calf Cocoa versus Attorney
General to which Mr. Joe Ghartey referred.
Calf Cocoa is a joint venture company
incorporated by a Chinese nominated partner
and Caridem Development Corporation.
Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu indicated that the
case rose simply because the then NPP
government again refused to honour a
contractual agreement between the government
of Ghana and Calf Cocoa for the payment of
the sum of $1,800,000.00 as working capital,
after the construction of the cocoa
processing factory.
She said when it became clear, after the
exchange of correspondence that the NPP
government did not intend to pay the sum,
Calf Cocoa took the matter to court.
In addition to the amount of $1,800,000.00
claimed by the company, the government was
ordered to pay an additional sum of
$1,750,000.00 towards rehabilitating the
factory, together with interest, the
Attorney General noted.
Mrs. Betty Mould Iddrisu pointed out that in
delivering the statement of the Minority in
Parliament; Mr. Joe Ghartey was very
selective in choosing what to quote from the
judgment on the case.
Touching on the case of Rockshell versus
Attorney General, she indicated that the
former Attorney General did not do file
anything in court to oppose it.
Again, “my office is at the moment grappling
with a claim of GH¢6,073,472.39 arising out
of the abrogation by the NPP government of a
contract with an automobile company to
supple the Ministry for Local Government
with Galloper vehicles.
It is inexcusable that a judgment delivered
in favour of this same automobile company in
2003 in the sum of GH¢50,279.96 is allowed
to grow interest to more than GH¢6million”,
she revealed.
The previous government retainer for a
foreign solicitor in an arbitration
involving the state and a foreign investor
and agree to pay 100,000 pounds sterling is
another case of bad governance, the Minister
stressed.
According to her by March 2009 when she
assumed office the government had made
payments of almost 1.5 million pounds
sterling to the foreign lawyers handling the
matter, adding “I have through negotiations
with the firm stopped making these payments.
She announced that the government was
putting in place a system to manage the
judgment debts hence the ministry is going
to be automated in the course of next year
to prudently manage the limited resources of
the country and give the people of Ghana
value for money.
Ghanadot
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