Mahama must sack AG for failing to retrieve dubious judgment debts – PPP

President John Mahama must sack Attorney General Marrietta Brew Appiah Oppong for underperformance, General Secretary of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Kofi Asamoah-Siaw has said.

He told said Thursday that the AG’s failure to retrieve judgment debts and state funds wrongfully paid to certain individuals and institutions, despite a ruling by the Supreme Court to that effect, betrays her incompetence, thus imperative for the President to terminate her appointment.

Ghana’s Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling in July 2014, ordered Businessman Alfred Woyome to refund to the state a Gh?51.2-million judgment debt paid him between 2009 and 2010.

The ruling followed a review of the court's own earlier decision sought by former Attorney General Martin Amidu, who insisted that Woyome, like international firms, Waterville and Isofoton, had no valid contract to be paid any amount by the state in judgment debt.

The ruling followed a similar one a few months earlier in which the same Supreme Court ruled in favour of Amidu and directed Isofoton and Waterville to pay back monies paid them in judgment debt.

According to the apex Court, Waterville Holdings BVI, which was allegedly involved in the construction of some stadia in Ghana, ahead of the hosting of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, was wrongfully paid €25 million and thus must refund the money.

The same Court ruled unanimously that Isofoton S.A. must also refund some US$325,472 it received as judgment debt from the Government of Ghana.

None of those monies have been retrieved, despite the definitive ruling by the highest Court of the land and an order given to the AG by the President for the monies to be retrieved.

In November 2013, while outlining a series of stringent measures to control corruption in the country at a meeting with anti-corruption groups in civil society, the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO), the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Head of Policy Monitoring and Evaluation at the Presidency, Dr Tony Aidoo, amongst others, President Mahama said he had directed the Justice Minister and the Finance Minister to work together and use all means possible to get a refund for the state.

In light of this, Asamoah-Siaw told Asempa FM’s Ekosii sen political programme hosted by Kwadwo Asare Barfour Acheampong on Thursday November 13, 2014 that Appiah Oppong’s failure to retrieve the monies is inexcusable.