Supreme Court to rule on Finance Minister’s $2.25 billion bond case on July 11

A Supreme Court judge, Justice Gabriel Pwamang on Wednesday, July 4, adjourned the case involving the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, over his role in the $2.25 billion bond issuance.

The court was compelled to adjourn the case due to some amendments made to the statement of the case by the Attorney General, who is the legal counsel for the Finance Minister and CHRAJ.

In January this year, an anti-graft group, Dynamic Youth Movement of Ghana (DYMOG) dragged the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to the Supreme Court for violating its limits in the 2.25 billion-dollar bond issuance.

CHRAJ was sued for clearing the Finance Minister of the allegations levelled against him in relation to the issuance of the government bond.

The group has made claims that CHRAJ, in reviewing a petition on the controversial bond in which the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta being accused of conflict of interest has decided to make some assertions on the matter that are ‘totally’ out of context thereby infringing the provisions of the 1992 constitution.

The group, in their lawsuit, contended that the Finance Minister in issuing the 2.25 billion dollar bond to Franklin Templeton placed himself in a conflict of interest situation because one of the directors of the US-based investment group Trevor Trefgarne is also a director of a company owned by the Minister.

Among the reliefs the group is seeking include; (a) A declaration that by going beyond investigations to make a pronouncement (of guilty or otherwise) on the 1st Defendant in respect of the allegation of breach of conflict of interest, the 2nd Defendant has contravened Article 287 of the 1992 Constitution.

(b)A declaration that by interpreting Article 284 of the 1992 Constitution (as disclosed between paragraph 3 of page 127 and paragraph 3 of page 133 of the Report) the 2nd Defendant has contravened Article 130(1)(a) of the 1992 Constitution.

The youth group is also seeking a declaration that by issuing or overseeing the issuance of the said bonds to Templeton without disclosing his relational interest with a director at Templeton, one Trevor G. Trefgarne, the 1st Defendant has acted in contravention of Article 284 of the 1992 Constitution.