Conflicting judgment debt amounts to Societe-Generale

The Judgement Debt Commission is to establish the exact amount of money paid as compensation to Societe-Generale as three different figures have been stated before it (Commission).

The conflicting figures comprised $47 million; $20 million and $19 million, all purported to have been paid to Societe Generale.

“There is confusion about the exact amount paid on the sale of the Drill Ship Coverer 511 as judgment debt compensation to Societe Generale, and we are still probing to uncover the exact amount involved,” the Commission said on Wednesday at its sitting.

The Commission made this known when officials of the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) appeared before it on Wednesday.

The bank presented records on payment transaction for the sale of GNPC Drill Ship Discoverer 511, and payment to Societe-Generale.

The GNPC also submitted audited accounts covering the period 1999 to 2005, including corresponding assets register and transaction report from insurers on the sale of Drill Ship Discoverer 511.

The Commission said Societe-Generale took GNPC to court in London on transactions it executed on the Tano Oil Fields, which the GNPC could not pay and judgement was given in its favour.

A Drill Ship Coverer 511 belonging to GNPC was sold for 24 million dollars by the Ministry of Energy, and 19 million dollars was paid to defray the debt in 2001.

Mr Paul Mensah-Ashun, Chief Manager, Banking Department, who represented the Bank, told the Commission that there were no records on the sale of the Drill Ship Coverer 511 at the Bank.

He said the transactions were done without the involvement of the bank. He, however, explained that the bank had corresponding banks and that if the money was paid through “our corresponding bank accounts we will not know”.

Naa Boakye Asafo Adjaye, Chief Executive Officer of GNPC, said the Corporation did not know who sold the Drill Ship Coverer 511, but confirmed that it (GNPC) only received a letter from the Ministry of Energy about the sale of the Drill Ship Coverer 511.

He said even though the Drill Ship Coverer 511 was a property of the GNPC, it did not know who sold it and how much was involved.

The Ghana Police Service also appeared before the Commission on an accident case involving a Police driver, Sergeant Francis Addo and Alhaji Muhammed Imran and two others.

The Attorney General gave Alhaji Imran some compensation for damages done to his car during the accident, but it was not clear whether the compensation had been paid.