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Ghanaian Government Saddled With a Billion Debt in Compensation, Others
17 July 2009
THE GOVERNMENT of Ghana (GoG) is said to owe about one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) in numerous judgment debts, accruing from claims against government, including compensation over the last ten years. The African Automobile Limited Company in Ghana for instance, has several claims against the GoG dating back to the nineties, which have been put into three categories; Ministries in general, Ministry of Information and Employment and Manpower, Ministry of Local Government. This was revealed by the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu, at the meet the press series in Accra, who said negotiations were however ongoing with the company to reach an amicable settlement. Additionally, she said there was an uncountable number of land compensation cases pending, saying, "it makes adequate sense that once land is compulsorily acquired by the government, fair and adequate compensation is paid, in accordance with our constitution." She noted that the claims involved huge sums of money, all of which cannot be paid off outright, lamenting that insufficient efforts made by the previous government to settle the debts, but was quick to add that the government would make efforts to settle the genuine ones. She explained that the Attoney General, as the Principal State Attorney, services all boards, and also was supposed to do same for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), but due to human resource constraints at the department, most of the attorneys of ministries in particular, are not state attorneys. The civil division, whose schedule of work includes giving legal advice to all MDAs, has only forty one attorneys, including the Solicitor General, who is head of the division, as well as administrative head of the legal service, she noted. The others include five Chief State Attorneys, three Principal State Attorneys, two Senior State Attorneys, two State Attorneys, and twenty nine Assistant State Attorneys. According to her, the ministries employ private attorneys who do not report to the Attorney-Generals Department, saying, "it is only when there is a problem that the attorneys run to us, because you can only sue a ministry through the Attorney-General," stressing, "they come to us when the case is already bad." She said as legal advisor to MDAs, the A-G's Department is supposed to supervise all contracts and agreements before they are finalised, but this has not been the case, while in many cases the relevant agency often fails to provide details of the problem, hence the many judgment debts for the country. In addition, the prosecution division that supervises all the nine regions is also constrained, such that the Ashanti Region has the highest of fourteen attorneys, with the least being one attorney in the Upper West Region. Furthermore, the regions face acute shortages of office and residential accommodation, furniture, lack of office equipment such as computers and printers, and official vehicles, especially in the southern sector, which makes attending court in districts difficult. The Minister announced that currently, there were a number of bills before cabinet, including the Economic and Organised Crime Bill, which seeks to establish an Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) as a specialised agency to monitor, and investigate certain offences on authority of the Attorney-General. The bill, when passed, would completely replace the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), and focus on offences that involve serious financial or economic loss to the Republic, money laundering, human trafficking, cyber crimes, computer-related fraud, recover proceeds of crime, and provide for related matters. She bemoaned that the rate of organised crime had increased considerably in recent times, saying, "globalisation and cross-border organised crime has led to an increase in the spate of criminal activity." The EOCO is intended to be an agency to combat organised crime in the country, with the objective to detect and prevent organised crime, and generally facilitate the confiscation of the proceeds of crime. "It replaces the Serious Fraud Office Act, and transfers the assets to the new institution," the Minister stated. Other bills in cabinet include the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) (Amendment) Bill, Property Rights and Spouses Bill, Intestate Succession Bill, The Whistle Blower (Amendment) Bill, Mutual Legal Assistance Bill, Public Officers Liability, and Freedom of Information Bill.
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