Two Bodies Fail To Furnish Judgement Debt Commission With Document

Representatives of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ghana Procurement Authority (GPA) yesterday failed to furnish the Commission on Judgement Debts with documents regarding the payment of judgement debts to some organisations. The organisations � the International Tobacco Company Ghana Limited, Margins Company Limited, Margins ID Systems and Indolink � took legal action against the state for various deeds they deemed illegal and were awarded various sums of money by the courts. An Assistant Commissioner of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) division of the GRA, Mr Larry Fiifi Yankson, and the Director of Legal Affairs of the GPA, Mrs Leslie Duodu, when they appeared, could not provide the papers related to payments made to the companies as required, a situation which drew the displeasure of the Sole Commissioner, Mr Justice Yaw Apau. Property belonging to the ITG was seized by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government in the 1980s and sold, together with the company�s trademark, to Meridian Tobacco Company Ltd. In 2004, the ITG went to court and secured judgement in its favour, including an order to CEPS to pay money to it in relation to accumulated rent. The court also ordered that compensation should be paid for the seizure of the company�s building situated in Accra and its seal returned to it. The commission at its sitting yesterday expected the GRA to deliver its documents in respect of the payments to the ITG. Mr Yankson, however, told the commission that although the CEPS, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the Registrar General�s Department were joined to the suit filed by the plaintiff, none of them, including the Attorney-General, was aware that judgement had been given and some money released to the ITG. He said CEPS was never served with any of the processes as far as the judgement was concerned, adding that the case in question was still pending before the law courts and would be next heard in June 2013. With regard to the payments to Margins Company Ltd, which secured judgement in its favour for the production of calendars for the Ghana @50 Secretariat, Mrs Leslie Duodou, Director of Legal Affairs of the GPA, who was subpoenaed to assist the commission in its investigations, told the commission that she could not provide any documents in respect of the purchase of the calenders because not all bids go through the authority. The failure on the part of the two officials to provide the documents did not go down well with Sole Commissioner who adjourned proceedings to today. Representatives of SSNIT, the Registrar General�s Department, as well as the Attorney General, are scheduled to appear today.