The Judgement Debt Commission has directed the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) to apply for copies of the proceedings of the hearing and judgement of the High Court in London on the GNPC’s drill ship, Discoverer 511.
The Sole Commissioner, Mr Justice Yaw Apau, gave the directive yesterday when a principal legal officer of the GNPC, Ms Adwoa Afriyie Wiafe, told the commission that the GNPC did not have copies of the court proceedings and judgement.
Following that judgement, the drill ship was sold at $24 million to pay off a $19.5 million judgement debt owed to French multinational bank, Societe Generale.
She indicated that the GNPC started the case but the Attorney General’s Department took over the case along the line.
Following that, Ms Wiafe said the GNPC only received briefings on the case from its sector ministry, the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum Resources.
Mr Justice Apau, however, told Ms Wiafe that once the case involved the GNPC it was only the company that could apply for copies of the proceedings and judgement of the High Court in London.
He said the commission wanted to have copies of the proceedings of the hearing and the judgement “to know what transpired”.
Agreeing with that suggestion, Ms Wiafe said the GNPC would take it up by writing to the High Court in London for copies of the proceedings and judgement on the drill ship.
A few months ago, a former Energy Minister under the Kufuor administration, Albert Kan-Dapaah, and his deputy K.T Hammond, appeared before the commission to answer questions about their involvement in the sale of the drill ship.
Both Mr Kan-Dapaah and Mr Hammond maintained most of the $24 million realised from the sale of the ship was used to defray judgement debt, and the remaining $3.5 million was returned to the government chest.
Bank of Ghana
The Head of the Treasury Department of the Bank of Ghana, Mr Yao Agbelenko Abalo, also appeared before the commission and presented data in respect of currency rates differentiation between the cedi and other foreign currencies from January 1991-January 2014.
The currency rates, according to the counsel of the commission, Mr Dometi Kofi Sokpor, were to assist the commission to understand the currency rates in respect of compensation payments to Construction Pioneers (CP).
Lands Commission
A Chief Valuer at the Land Valuation Division (LVD) of the Lands Commission, Mr Justice Mawulaweh Morgan, appeared before the commission in relation to the payment of GH˘625, 218, 606 compensation for the Volta Basin Resettlement Area around Wusuta.
He told the commission that the LVD was not aware of the payment of GH˘625, 218, 606 to any families in respect of that land.
However, Mr Morgan said the LVD had valued crops on the portion of the land, which stood at GH˘623, 218, 606.
Mr Morgan said the division was not aware whether the government had paid the GH˘623, 218, 606 or not.
Source: Daily Graphic
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