The Ineptitude of Government Lawyers in Judgment Debt Cases I

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back door director 10 years ago

You put many off with your jaundiced views

You put many off with your jaundiced views
ADAMU 10 years ago

it is the absolute truth that heartless ndc is hell bent on wickedly deepening the poverty of the north and volta thro such dubious payments to cronies and themselves,,,

it is the absolute truth that heartless ndc is hell bent on wickedly deepening the poverty of the north and volta thro such dubious payments to cronies and themselves,,,
DESSIE 10 years ago

hmm,Ontario Canada province paid 250million dollars as compensation on cacellation of coal energy plant contract;the Dr is right the government lawyers did bad job.. and it could be special interest attach to the debth

hmm,Ontario Canada province paid 250million dollars as compensation on cacellation of coal energy plant contract;the Dr is right the government lawyers did bad job.. and it could be special interest attach to the debth
Prof Lungu 10 years ago

As heads up, we will refer readers to our latest essay on the subject:

Feature Article of Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Columnist: Prof. Lungu
"Mahama's "Dubious Judgement" Toli is Worthless"

(www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/f ...
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As heads up, we will refer readers to our latest essay on the subject:

Feature Article of Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Columnist: Prof. Lungu
"Mahama's "Dubious Judgement" Toli is Worthless"

(www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Mahama-s-Dubious-Judgement-Toli-is-Worthless-359330)

IN PART, WE SAID:
"...Mr. Mahama has always known about the scale of these dubious payments!

But, when Mr. Martin Amidu won the judgment debt refund from Spanish company Isofoton SA in 2014, and the Supreme Court ordered that company to return to the Government of Ghana an amount of GH¢325,497, we did not see or hear Mr. Mahama congratulate Mr. Martin Amidu...//

...//When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Martin Amidu in June, 2012, against Waterville Holdings and Austro Invest, and ordered the companies to refund to Ghana GH¢41million, we did not see or hear Mr. Mahama congratulate Mr. Martin Amidu...//

...//So, if we may, in homage to Martin Amidu and in Ghana-centeredness, we must at this point channel Mr. Amidu himself in his critique of Attorney General Betty Mould Iddrisu: What, precisely, prevented Mr. Mahama from "...taking the position (Mr. Amidu) took, from pursuing "Waterville for a refund of that money in any court...", through the officers who directly report to him, and can be canned for poor performance and "insubordination" by refusal to act, in timely fashion, in the interest of the commonwealth of Ghanaian and its tax payers?..."

ITEM: Mr. Martin Amidu is a whole lot better lawyer for Ghanaians than the whole pack of them (both known and unknown, by us!).

THIS FROM:
Feature Article of Monday, 16 March 2015
Columnist: Sarfo, Samuel Adjei On The Matter of Woyome, The State is Complicit in Gargantuan Fraud

READ: "...Now enter a citizen vigilante, former Attorney General Martin Amidu, who filed a writ of certiorari at the Supreme Court alleging fraud on the scheme that led to the payment of the judgment debt to Woyome. As well intentioned and patriotic as this writ was, it was a case in bad procedure and improper suit...And by the way, I maintain also that the citizen vigilante had no locos in the case and his writ of certiorari should not have been entertained at the Supreme Court because the matter was res judicata insofar as it had been completely resolved by the court to the apparent satisfaction of all parties involved. The lower court's judgment had already been upheld by the actual parties in litigation by a satisfaction of the judgment debt. And the matter was therefore effectively closed.

WE SAY: At least we know a good lawyer who won for Ghana - Mr. Martin Amidu!

NOW TO Samuel Adjei Sarfo, J.D's Current Project:

ITEM: We just can't fathom this one, yet again!

Just the other day, we learned from Samuel Adjei Sarfo, J.D, that lawyers, all of them, are the best invention ever made/discovered by man. This, after he had castigated teachers, doctors, engineers, even writers, etc., for their failings.

So we brought out the matter of lawyers to our Samuel Adjei Sarfo, J.D!

Now, this is what we get - a talk down on NDC judgment debt lawyers.

What happened to NPP judgment debt lawyers? Or, were there none, Samuel Adjei Sarfo, J.D?

Or, are we supposed to operate as if it is solely a lawyer problem? That there are no political influences in these matters?

READ: "...all lawsuits against the country must be viewed as a hostile act by its enemies, and aggressively fought with all the tools we would employ in fighting for our very survival. Otherwise these spurious lawsuits intentionally brought against the government will forever continue, and in the end, we the people will continue to suffer under the talons of fake judgment debts..."

WE SAY: We agree!

In addition, we would like to know

Better late to a good debate, than never, we must say!
ADAMU 10 years ago

WITH NDC EVIL GOVT IN POWER, WE ARE IN HELL ALRIGHT......What will happen to any further investigation into the fraudulent judgment debts still bedeviling the country? Nothing.

WITH NDC EVIL GOVT IN POWER, WE ARE IN HELL ALRIGHT......What will happen to any further investigation into the fraudulent judgment debts still bedeviling the country? Nothing.
ADAMU 10 years ago

poorest people in ghana form the predominant number of their voters, but yet this occultist ndc rather chose to use this wicked and dubious means to drain state coffers whilst more kayayeis and trokosis are created in north a ...
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poorest people in ghana form the predominant number of their voters, but yet this occultist ndc rather chose to use this wicked and dubious means to drain state coffers whilst more kayayeis and trokosis are created in north and volta,,,,,,this is a clear case of the ndc govt having a thirst for blood money from their own people who reposed their trust in them,,,,ide biiii kekekeeee
Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 10 years ago

Dr SAS, judgement debt in Ghana is a lucrative and thriving business in Ghana for politicians, civil servants (particularly state attorneys) judges, lawyers, businesses and some wealthy individuals. They all take their share ...
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Dr SAS, judgement debt in Ghana is a lucrative and thriving business in Ghana for politicians, civil servants (particularly state attorneys) judges, lawyers, businesses and some wealthy individuals. They all take their share and that is why judgement debt is very common in Ghana. Do you remember a Justice of the SC described Woyomegate as create, loot and share? It is applicable to all judgement debt claims.

You are right that the ineptitude of the very state officials who are supposed to defend the state is the problem. In some cases, state attorneys deliberately fail to go to court to defend the claim against the sate in order for default judgement to be given so they can get their share. In others, state attorneys (as was in the case of Woyomegate) actually work to the detriment of the state by either advising the plaintiff how to make a claim against the state or deliberately recommend payment instead of a defence.

I raised these matters in two articles in 2012 (“Are some Ghanaians capable of managing state affairs”, Ghanaweb, January 28, 2012 and Woyomegate, has Ghana’s Civil Service led Ghana down”, Ghanaweb, February 2012.
Another critical matter is the unilateral abrogation of foreign contracts awarded by one government by another government on the flimsy excuse that it was not approved by parliament. These ministers naively assume that just because a foreign contract was not approved by parliament as required under the constitution makes it legal to abrogate it without recourse to negotiations or due process. That may be the law in Ghana but in international law, the principle of not benefiting from one’s crime, failure or mistake is what is considered when it comes to International Arbitration. It is the responsibility of government of Ghana to ensure that any foreign contract is sent to parliament for approval. If that government fails to do so why should the foreign company be punished for something it had no hand in (that is, the failure of the government to seek parliamentary approval)? If ministers simply use this constitutional requirement to abrogate foreign contracts without due process, Ghana will continue to pay judgement debts to foreign companies till thy kingdom come because they will always win when they go for International Arbitration because Ghana cannot benefit from the failure of its government/s. It’s as simple as that and particularly when Ghana’s constitution is not the international law.
KKO 10 years ago

Excellent piece, Dr SAS.
For one thing, our legal training institutions, like most other disciplines in Ghana, are churning out half-baked graduates who are not fit for purpose. Some of the judgement debt cases are so flawed ...
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Excellent piece, Dr SAS.
For one thing, our legal training institutions, like most other disciplines in Ghana, are churning out half-baked graduates who are not fit for purpose. Some of the judgement debt cases are so flawed that even for a non-legal person, application of simple native commonsense would throw out those cases.

Yet our so-called state lawyers simply throw in the towel, and the reason is they would have been assured of their cuts even before the suit is filed. The zeal with which Betty Mould-Idrissu pursued the Ministry of finance and Bank of Ghana in the Woyome case says it all!

The only salvation for the poor Ghanaian taxpayer is for all right thinking Ghanaians to come together to work assiduously to kick out this incompetent, thieving government so our moribund legal system can be restructured for future generations!
Kofi Ameko 10 years ago

Greetings.

A worthy piece.

Will connect next time I come to Austin on STEM mission. Left a month ago.

Greetings.

A worthy piece.

Will connect next time I come to Austin on STEM mission. Left a month ago.
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 10 years ago

I was trying to connect with you the last time you were around but did not have enough information to do so.

Email me the next time you are around and let's get together.

I was trying to connect with you the last time you were around but did not have enough information to do so.

Email me the next time you are around and let's get together.

G. K. Berko 10 years ago

Dr. SAS is right! His assertion below sums it all up for this topic:

"And if the government lawyers are serious about any aggressive legal defenses, there are numerous ways in which the assets of this country could be well ...
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Dr. SAS is right! His assertion below sums it all up for this topic:

"And if the government lawyers are serious about any aggressive legal defenses, there are numerous ways in which the assets of this country could be well protected against almost all such judgment debts, the least of which is that the country could declare some form of bankruptcy as we did in Kufuor’s time."

Our Government Officials have almost always been part of the problem that leads to the Judgment Debts. I have a feeling they even deliberately set the stage for those Debts to happen just so they would capital on the case to enrich themselves, too.

I strongly suspect Barton Oduro's exposure of sharing in Woyome's loot wasn't the first of that complicity by a Government Official.

More, we may also be overlooking the likely facilitation of that crime by our veteran Civil Servants who reside in the various Ministries and guide the Political Heads to make those costly mistakes. My past experience with Ghana's Civil Service points to the fact that many veteran Civil Servants with the deepest experience in managing the Administrative duties would even initiate such crimes by introducing their newly-appointed bosses to various tricks they could use to milk the system.

If the Officials have that much personal interest to chalk in such cases, how would they have any patriotic motivation or even integrity to do the right thing and vigorously fight for the Nation?

We are witnesses to how crucial evidential documents in Government cases are suppressed by conniving Prosecutors or Government Attorneys claiming the loss of such only to provide the Judges opportunities to discharge cases on the basis of Technicalities at the Nation's expense.

Our entire governing machinery is sickeningly unpatriotic, and places its parochial personal interests ahead of the Nation's. I remember the often heard repulsive comments by cheating Officials and co-workers' which went like this: "Does that belong to your Mom or Dad? It's for the Government, and not your family's. So, why complain?" Such would be what I often heard some cheating Officials say to protesting colleagues, when the latter complained about others' illicit use of some Office items. Many of the protestors would insist to get the culprits off those acts. But in the absence of those honest protestors, there was no guarantee the culprits would not repeat the same crimes.

Personally, I remember how I often had heated routs with some of my Office colleagues regarding the frequency they abandoned Offices to go to Wednesday Soccer Games at the Stadium before Closing time at Work.

The saddest thing is that many of them were not even Soccer enthusiasts and would not even go to the Games and yet take off for the day. Later on, I understand, somehow, many Offices managed to 'legalize' such exodus of their employees to the Games on every Wednesday, short-changing the tax payers on the hours worked while taking full pay.

That is only one little aspect of how Ghanaians have long been taking undue advantage of the State's assets. Some of my Office Colleagues would even claim, those little thieveries were their perks, too, since the bosses take much higher loots that theirs.

So, it has also to do with our general culture of serving the Nation. We have allowed too much of that nonsense to go unpunished, or politicized the associated punitive process to the point where Partisan groups look at it as either appropriate for only retaliatory purposes, or consider the incidence of such crimes as their opportunity to equalize in enriching their side, too.

May the Lord save our souls! I pray to see an honest, fair and firm Ghanaian Government, someday, that would not only fully implement the Law, through and through, to significantly curb corruption, grafting and looting and other such crimes among its rank and file, and effectively educate the Masses to refrain from condoning them.

Long Live Ghana!!!
Jato Kaleo 10 years ago

G. K. I have always wondered about your criterion of capitalizing certain words. In your very first sentence, the pronoun referring to the author is capitalized (His) right in the middle of the sentence. I just can't understa ...
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G. K. I have always wondered about your criterion of capitalizing certain words. In your very first sentence, the pronoun referring to the author is capitalized (His) right in the middle of the sentence. I just can't understand why.

Then you capitalize Government Officials, Office Colleagues, Soccer enthusiasts, Soccer Games, Closing time at Work, State's assets, serving the Nation, educate the Masses, Mom or Dad, Technicalities at the Nation's expense, managing the Administrative duties, etc etc.

Ever since you started writing your well-thought out comments on ghanaweb, I have been trying to find out what formula lies behind the words that you start with a capital letter and those that you start with a small one. At first, I thought you lived in Germany or know German well where all substantives (nouns) start with a capital letter as a rule. Then I realised that you were not following that rule either and, for all I know, you don't know a word of German.

I have wondered at this manner of writing especially since it takes extra effort to press on the shift key to produce a capital letter for a word that most people will start with a small letter.

Dear G.K., pls, tell me what criteria you use to determine which words should start with an upper case letter and which should not.

I can't still my curiosity...
Abubaar M. M. Azindoo 10 years ago

Dr. SAS, thanks so much for the good education on law, politics, and governance.

Dr. SAS, thanks so much for the good education on law, politics, and governance.
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 10 years ago

Thanks Bro.

I am still trying to figure out what to say about your newest article though.

I see that it is a departure from your regular lessons but nonetheless very informative.

Thanks again for your encouragement.

Thanks Bro.

I am still trying to figure out what to say about your newest article though.

I see that it is a departure from your regular lessons but nonetheless very informative.

Thanks again for your encouragement.
kofikofi 10 years ago

Nana Konadu did not sue the govt in 2009 as you wrongly published. It was in 2005 !!.
AG defended the case until the last day of judgement. Kuffour thought he could do politics with Nana Konadu and nation suffered for it.

Nana Konadu did not sue the govt in 2009 as you wrongly published. It was in 2005 !!.
AG defended the case until the last day of judgement. Kuffour thought he could do politics with Nana Konadu and nation suffered for it.
kofikofi 10 years ago

General News of Tuesday, 29 July 2014 Source: Daily Guide Konadu $4m at Judgement Debt Commission

General News of Tuesday, 29 July 2014 Source: Daily Guide Konadu $4m at Judgement Debt Commission

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The Ineptitude of Government Lawyers in Judgment Debt Cases I

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