NPP-Canada On Judgement Debt Commission: A Hatchet Job?

The Judgement Debt Commission (JDC) of Ghana was established in October 2012 by President John Dramani Mahama.

The year preceding the creation of the JDC had seen an unprecedented tongue-lashing against the NDC government from just about every well-meaning Ghanaian. And rightly so because most could not fathom how the Government had since 2009 paid over US$600m in Judgement Debt payments. Especially when it had become clear that at the heart of the payments were clear cases of fraudulent schemes that subsequently came to be appropriately characterized by Supreme Court Justice Jones Dotse as a system of “create, loot and share”.

It was against this background that President Mahama established the JDC to look into all cases of Judgement Debts. Some saw this decision of the President as a good initiative, never mind the cost implications. Others saw it as a decision pregnant with sinister, machiavellian and political undertones meant to set the tone for baseless blame equalization. A well-known veteran Journalist had appropriately described the decision to go beyond the known cases of fraudulent Judgement Debt to include all Judgement Debts stretching back to other governments and eras as a case of “creating a forest of issues to hide a tree”. As things have turned out, this veteran Journalist could not have been more prophetic.

For chairmanship of the JDC, President Mahama appointed Justice Yaw Appau, an Appeals Court Judge. According to some who knew him in his younger years in the 1980s during the government of the PNDC (the antecedent of the governing NDC), Justice Appau was a Cadre of the so-called Revolution.

The appointment of Justice Appau sounded ominous bells in the ears of some. Some expressed disquiet saying that this appointment was yet a confirmation of sorts that the raison d’etre for the JDC was essentially to score equalization points.

In the course of the JDC’s sittings, it was hoped that in the interest of natural justice, fairness, and equity, that certain individuals like President Kufuor and Nana Akufo-Addo would be invited to give their reasons as to why certain decision were taken or not taken.

Needless to say, despite the expressed wishes of President Kufuor and Nana Addo to be present to share information on any matter of interest to the Commission, they were not invited. The non-invitation of Prez Kufuor and Nana Akufo-Addo would not have been significant if at the end of the day, the commission was not going to offer a ringing indictment about what the commission “found” as their failures in some Judgement Debts. Ironically, the Commission found it very convenient to invite a senior NDC lawyer in the case of the Electoral Petition, Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata. It is also interesting that everything that Mr. Tsikata said at the Commission was found very credible by Justice Appau.

After nearly three years and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, the only new thing we are learning from the leaked report of the Commission’s work is that President Kufuor and Nana Akufo-Addo failed in some respects with regard to certain Judgement Debts. Considering that the NDC Government and its communicators were all along labelling the same accusations against President Kufuor and Nana Addo even before the establishment of the JDC, it will not even be correct to say that the findings of the JDC in respect of President Kufuor and Nana Addo are new. A rehash of NDC propaganda would be more like it.

The Government’s Whitepaper on the report of the JDC is not yet out. But needless to say, and surprising to only a handful, President Mahama is apparently so thrilled by the work of Justice Appau that literally days after the report was submitted to President Mahama, the President elevated Justice Appau to become a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana. Apparently, the Ghana Bar Association is not so enthused about the way Presidents of the 4th Republic have not followed the constitution to the letter in the appointment of Supreme Court Justices. If Presidents followed the constitution to the letter in the appointment of Supreme Court Justices as the GBA contends they have not, would Justice Appau be where he is at the Supreme Court today?

Several legal experts have expressed shock and dismay at the apparent shoddiness of the work of the JDC.

The JDC has achieved the real and machiavellian objectives it was set out to achieve, known or unbeknownst to Justice Appau. To put it bluntly, it was a hatchet job meant to create a forest of issues to hide a tree, to create a basis for partisan blame equalization, and to set the stage for attacks on the personal integrities of President Kufuor and Nana Addo without fear of any civil libel suit.

Yaanom Abibirimma, can Ghana not do better than this?

NPP Canada Communication Team

NPPCanada@outlook.com

Tel: 587-708-9915 / 647-800-3585