One Judgment Debt Too Many, Haba!

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• Ghanaman1 11 years ago

  They created them

  They created them

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• Shakilolo 11 years ago

  Your mother wasted nine precious months carrying you animal.

  Your mother wasted nine precious months carrying you animal.

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• Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 11 years ago

  Prof, there are a number of issues to this judgement debt problems. First, is the trick politicians use to award contracts to foreign companies without seeking approval from parliament as required under the Constitution. They ...
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  Prof, there are a number of issues to this judgement debt problems. First, is the trick politicians use to award contracts to foreign companies without seeking approval from parliament as required under the Constitution. They do so by encouraging foreign companies to open a subsidiary in Ghana as a conduit and for the sole purpose avoiding scrutiny of the deal by parliament. The NPP did it and NDC is currently doing it, especially in the oil sector.
  
  The second is what you rightly pointed out. That is, the unilateral decision by ministers to abrogate legally biding agreements, sometimes, simply because the contract went to cronies of their political opponents. Even if it was true that the Bankswitch contract was unnecessary, it was wrong for the NDC government to take a unilateral decision to cancel the contract. There are guidelines on how such contractual disagreements are resolved and the due process should have been followed.
  
  The other problem is the indiscipline and lawlessness in Ghana where no one complies with the law, rules and regulations. For that reason ministers believe they are above the law or can take the law into their own hands and abrogate contracts irrespective of the consequences of such unlawful and illegal actions on the state.
  
  Finally, the selfishness of the Ghanaian politician to seek their own interest against that of the state. They agree to one-sided agreements that have no safeguards for the state, which no rational being will sign but they do just because they stand to benefit from it personally. I do not believe that there are no qualified Ghanaians in contract law (both local and international). Moreover one does not need to be contract law expert to manage a contract.
  
  The unilateral abrogation of contracts causing millions of cedis or dollars in judgement debts to the state is the result of parochial interest, vindictiveness, envy and political point scoring. Unless NDC and NPP put a stop to giving contracts to their cronies and unilaterally cancelling contracts for political reasons, Ghana's meagre resources would be wasted in paying judgement debts. This is because none of them are taken to task for their unconstitutional acts, selfishness, unpatriotism and criminality.

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• Don Blunt 11 years ago

  "....ministers believe they are above the law....", "....none of them are taken to task ...."
  Can this be a (mis)understood interpretation of the indemnity clause of the 1992 Constitution?
  We remember Betty Mould argued on ...
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  "....ministers believe they are above the law....", "....none of them are taken to task ...."
  Can this be a (mis)understood interpretation of the indemnity clause of the 1992 Constitution?
  We remember Betty Mould argued on lines of the mandate given her as AG, to even flout the orders of the then Prez. Mills, not to effect the Payments to Woyome. Another person who blatantly misused his powers is Afari Gyan, creating 45 new constituencies in such haste.

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• Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 11 years ago

  Don Blunt, I am not a lawyer but my understanding of the Indemnity Clause in the 1992 Constitution relates to the past and the present or future. So it does not cover governments when and after the Constitution came into forc ...
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  Don Blunt, I am not a lawyer but my understanding of the Indemnity Clause in the 1992 Constitution relates to the past and the present or future. So it does not cover governments when and after the Constitution came into force. Even the President can be removed from office if s/he breaches the Constitution and if the president commits an offence whilst in office he could be sued and prosecuted after s/he leaves office. The President cannot be prosecuted or tried whilst s/he is still in office, except in presidential election petitions as it happened in the recent one.
  
  The problem of lack of respect for the law is a cultural problem. It's the "I will show you where power lies mentality" in most developing countries. People in positions of trust, the rich and powerful wrongly believe that power rests with them and unfortunately, the poor and weak also wrongly accept that when in fact, power rests with the people.

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• YAW 11 years ago

  If our worse than corrupt politicians showed just a little bit of the sense of propriety that they exhibit in their own personal financial affairs,in respect of Ghana"s public financial dealings,judgement debt will not be s ...
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  If our worse than corrupt politicians showed just a little bit of the sense of propriety that they exhibit in their own personal financial affairs,in respect of Ghana"s public financial dealings,judgement debt will not be so bad.

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• Frank 11 years ago

  Ahoofe, tell your useless and arrogant drug chewing cousin Akufo Addo! He was part of the criminals who abrogated various contracts by the ndc that they took over from. He supervised and actively participated in all of them. ...
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  Ahoofe, tell your useless and arrogant drug chewing cousin Akufo Addo! He was part of the criminals who abrogated various contracts by the ndc that they took over from. He supervised and actively participated in all of them. Foolish man, tell him!

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• Don Blunt 11 years ago

  Are you talking about CP contracts? Pls inform yourself well on that.

  Are you talking about CP contracts? Pls inform yourself well on that.

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• GALLATIANS 6:7 11 years ago

  "In the Bankswitch Affair, what we are not adequately being informed about is the basis upon which the unilateral decision by the then-Atta-Mills-led government of the National Democratic Congress to abrogate the contract was ...
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  "In the Bankswitch Affair, what we are not adequately being informed about is the basis upon which the unilateral decision by the then-Atta-Mills-led government of the National Democratic Congress to abrogate the contract was taken and effected. Was it, for instance, based on the fact of Bankswitch's having breached or violated any aspects of the contract by not living up to expectations, or value-for-money, as Ghanaian politicians are fond of saying, ad nauseam, these days?" I THOUGHT THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN DUGGED OUT TO SERVE AS THE BASIS FOR YOUR WRITE UP. BUT BE AS IT WERE YOU ENDED UP CONFUSING THE SO CALLED READER MASSES WITH YOUR SWIFT QUEENS PENSIVE TALLENTS. DO US MORE FAVOR BY GETTING THESE FACTS OUT FIRST. BUT MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT YOU FEAR OR HATE TO BLAME THE CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM HENCE ....YOU CAME YOU DONT KNOW IT....LETS US BE HONEST WITH THIS GREAT ACCOLADE PHD...IT IS FOR THE TRUTH...

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• FAMA NYAME 11 years ago

  SEE! IF ATTA MILLS HAD PUT UP INVESTIGATIVE BOARDS, AND PUBLICLY CONDEMNED AND JAILED SOME OF THESE MISCREANTS OF POLITICAL LOUD MOUTH THIEVES NDC WOULD HAVE BEEN EXONERATED TODAY.'FA MA NYAME SYNDROME SO CHANTED BY THE LAT ...
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  SEE! IF ATTA MILLS HAD PUT UP INVESTIGATIVE BOARDS, AND PUBLICLY CONDEMNED AND JAILED SOME OF THESE MISCREANTS OF POLITICAL LOUD MOUTH THIEVES NDC WOULD HAVE BEEN EXONERATED TODAY.'FA MA NYAME SYNDROME SO CHANTED BY THE LATE "FATHER TO ALL" BOUGHT NDC ALL THESE WOES TODAY AS THE THIEVES HAVE TURNED TO BLAME THE HONEST AND RIGHTEOUS.TODAY THEY ARE TIED OF WAITING ON THE TOUCHLINE AND ARE DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO TAKE OVER. LET ME WARN GHANAIANS THAT NPP WAS VOTED OUT OF POWER BECAUSE OF THEIR BAD GOVERNANCE. THEY LEFT THE STATE IN AN IR REPAIRABLE STATE AND LEGALLY CLOUDED THAT ANY GOVT THAT TOOK OVER AS IT WERE HAD AN UPHILL TASK TO FIX IT....DARE GIVE THEM ANOTHER CHANCE AND SEE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN.....

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