Judgement Debt: AG Gave Out Over GH¢60m To Construction Pioneers Without Cabinet Approval
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The office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice has been cited in the 2016 auditor general report for payment of judgment debt to a private company; Construction Pioneers without cabinet approval.
According to the report, an amount of GH¢67,380,718.20 was paid Construction Pioneers in 2015 by the Attorney General without recourse to cabinet.
As part of measures to ensure sanity in the payment of Judgement Debt and settled claims, in 2012 the administration of late former President John Evans Attah Mills directed that all Judgement Debt claims exceeding GH¢10,000,000.00 should be submitted to cabinet for approval prior to final settlement and payment.
The Attorney-General may, however, authorise settlement of claims up to the upper limit of GH¢10,000,000 and that MDAs which incur Judgement Debt by their action or inaction will bear the full cost of servicing these debts from their approved budget.
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But a review of the bank statement of the justice Ministry by the Auditor General Daniel Domelevo “disclosed that a payment of GH¢67,380,718.20 (direct debit) was made to Construction Pioneers as judgement debt on behalf of the state without any reference to cabinet.
The amount was paid in two tranches, the first being GH¢42,820,418.48 paid on February 20, 2015, and the second of GH¢24,560,299.72 paid on April 1 2015.
The Ministry, according to the Auditor General “could not provide any documentation with regards to the Court Judgement” and that the “Management’s failure to investigate the cause of the direct debit for appropriate action resulted in the anomaly.”
The Auditor General has therefore recommended that “Management should obtain the court judgement and all relevant documents to authenticate the payment.”
Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice when the payment was made.
