Has the sole commissioner for judgement debt not lost his way?

When President John Mahama appointed the sole commissioner for judgement debts, I will not say many Ghanaians but rather, many of our journalists and politicians said it was not necessary and that he was only using it as a tactic to put out the Woyome, Waterville, NDC fraudulent judgement debt flames. In our young democracy it is very much about where one belongs to and not about what is good or bad, wrong or right. With that observation made it is not difficult to measure the level of clash on every issue that rears its head in the country. However, the noise always dies off quickly and the government often gets its way whilst the opposition waits for another issue to raise the flag on. Thus the Sole Commissioner for judgement debts was established and began work.

The main task for the Sole Commissioner as communicated by the president to the nation was to investigate all judgement debts over certain period - how they came about and how they were resolved. The Sole Commissioner quickly came out to defend and to justify how important and necessary his task is and asked for the support of the entire nation to execute the duties diligently (Interviewed by Kwame Sefa, peacefm). He pleaded with anyone who has information to bring it out in support of the exercise. For a government that claims to be serious with ICT, I had expected to be directed to any website where the citizens - both at home and abroad - can visit to read the mandate of the Sole Commissioner and the list of all the cases they are looking into so that people with information know where to go to book appointment, which numbers to call or where to send emails.

Ghanaians also do not know the modality of the work being performed by the Sole Commissioner. For example, is he going to look at every single case from the period under review and present a bulk report to the president for action to be taken or he is proceeding case by case and furnish the president with the individual reports one at a time for quick action?

In all fairness to the Sole Commissioner he may be looking into several cases already since his work began couple of months ago. However the public are kept in the dark about what he is doing. We are at the mercy of the media houses who report on cases of political interest. What we hear mostly is sale of the GNPC Drill Ship and settlement of Societe Generale’s debt. I believe it is not too late for the commissioner to have its own website where the public can be updated and given the chance to provide information and share opinion. If each section of Kwame Sefa’s kookrokoo program is recorded and posted on the peacefmonline website for people to play back so can the Sole Commissioner’s.

The next matter worth interrogation is the selection of cases that fall within the remits of the Sole Commissioner. Lets remind ourselves once again of the mandate of the Sole Commissioner.

1. Look into how a judgement debt came about;

2. Look into how the payment was handled;

A judgement debt is a court awarded debt. Judgement debt typically comes about as a result of one party claiming to have incurred losses as a result of another party’s actions or inactions in a certain situation. The measurement of the quantum of losses is normally not scientific. The aggrieved party comes up with a figure he or she feels will satisfy the losses and if the judge sees such figure as reasonable then it is rewarded. It is normally not a clear cut issue as in knocking down and killing a goat and being asked to buy a new goat to replace it although the judicial system will always portray it to be so - that in the spirit of justice and equity a party is to be placed in a position they would have been in had the other party acted right.

This brings us to some questions about certain cases that the Sole Commissioner has decided to consider. The main issue that prompted the establishment of the Sole Commissioner for judgement debt had to do with the validity of losses claimed to have been suffered by some individuals and entities. The general public were made aware that certain claims against the nation were fraudulent and that no arrangement existed between Ghana and any party which should have given rise to the kind of payments that were being made. Justice Yaw Apau is tasked with finding out and establishing the fraud or otherwise in the claims and payments made so far.

Why then is Justice Apau wasting time on the sale of a Drill Ship? Justice Apau is not tasked with investigating how any state company disposes of its assets. State housing company and so many state institutions have sold their assets. Ghana Airways sold its assets to pay some of its debts. Fraudulent sale of national assets is not within the remit of the Sole Commissioner for judgement debts.

One will argue that the Sole Commissioner for judgement debt is looking at the sale of the Drill Ship because the proceeds were used for the payment of judgement debt. The question now is: Was GNPC’s indebtedness to the Societe Generale a typical judgement debt? Did the GNPC go to the Societe Generale to take “Taku “or “Senpua” for which the bank went to court to compel the GNPC to pay back or the bank just sat down and worked out some figure to represent the cost of certain services they supposedly rendered to GNPC and demand payment for?

Documents made available to the public so far attest to the fact that GNPC took money from the bank and the bank was just calling back for the money it has given to the GNPC. This falls totally outside of the judgment debts that Justice Apau is tasked to look into. Woyome and the rest did not make any payment to the government of Ghana. They only claim that they have made some expenses and lost money based on expectations in a contract they claim to have had with government. This is totally different from the GNPC and Societe Generale. Here we are looking at cash given to Ghanaians through GNPC and a repayment done on behalf of the nation by our elected government. So what exactly is Justice Apau investigating? Is Justice Apau questioning the validity of the cash we took from Societe Generale or the sale of the company’s asset? I am totally lost on that and I think many people out there will need some explanation from justice Apau because we are paying for what he is doing.

There is also this issue of how the proceeds from the sale of the Drill Ship were used. That throws the motive of justice Apau into total confusion. The mandate of Justice Apau does not cover an investigation into decision of any cabinet - be it NDC government or NPP government - to sell a state asset. Again his mandate does not cover how the government spent the proceeds from the sale of any state assets. With these facts well established, Justice Apau will make his work meaningful if he will limit himself to the question as to whether or not Ghana through the GNPC took money from Societe Generale for whatever business, and whether the 19.5 million dollars claimed to have been paid to the bank was indeed paid to the bank and done rightly. This in my non legal opinion should end the matter. How the government spent the 3.5 million dollar proceeds that was left after paying our debt (loan) to Societe Generale is not part of Justice Apau’s business – it is not the duty of a Sole Commissioner for judgement debt to look into it. It is purely an income of the nation and the auditor general or the appropriate authority should capture how our income was received and used - not a Sole commissioner for judgement debt.

Against the foregoing, the questions remain: Has the Sole Commissioner for judgement debt lost his way? Would his work reveal anything different from what we already know? Is he proving the critics right or some of us are just getting it all wrong? I leave it to you and humbly await for some education on it.

PREMPEH FORSON