AG�s Dept Hot Over Missing Files

The issues of missing files at the Attorney General�s Department resurfaced again at the Judgement Debt Commission sitting yesterday. A representative of the Solicitor General, Elfreda Dankyi a senior state attorney at the Attorney General�s Department who appeared before the Commission failed to provide adequate information regarding the payment of compensation of GH�42,000 to the family of the late Stephen Danomah. She explained that her inability to furnish the Commission with the information it needed was because the main file on the issue could not be located, and that the AG�s Department only had �scanty� information on the matter. �My Lord, all we have is some scanty information, but we are still searching for the main file on this matter,� she emphasised. Mrs. Dankyi, who was led in evidence by Dometi Kofi Sorkpor, counsel for the Commission added there was �no record on the State Attorney who handled the issue, and therefore requested for the Commission to give the department about two weeks �to get further directives on the matter and come back with the right answers.� The Commission granted her request and asked the Solicitor General and the State Attorney who handled the case to appear before it on Monday August 12, 2013 with all the necessary files. The late Mr. Danomah was shot by one Police Constable Felix Asante on September 11, 2008, when a police patrol team pursued a vehicle in which the deceased was travelling. It is not yet known why the police pursued and killed the deceased, but his family filed �a notice of intention to commence an action against the AG� that same year. The then AG, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, in 2010, issued a settlement of GH�42,000 to be given to the family. According to the Sole Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apau, the Commission was interested in knowing �the issues which were considered before the compensation amount was paid, and why the AG directed the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) to pay the GH�42,000 to one Seth Adjei-Yeboah who claimed to be a member of the family, even though it is on record that the family was represented by John Kwabena Danomah and Rosemond Danomah.� In a related development, Kojo Awuah Peasah, director in charge of External Resource Mobilisation (Bilateral) at MOFEP who also appeared before the Commission regarding the same issue, tendered documents stating authorization it received from the AG to pay the said GH�42,000 to Mr. Adjei-Yeboah. The Ghana Police Service was also expected to send a representative to the sitting in relation to the same issue, but failed to do so. They have therefore been subpoenaed to appear before the Commission on Wednesday July 31, 2013.