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A CHIEF Director at the Ministry of Youth and Sports was yesterday queried at the Judgment Debt hearing, over the payment of a debt to a construction company. It was gathered by the commission that the debt paid to M/SEP Ghana Limited had increased to over 30 times the original amount in barely a decade. The debt, which was incurred by the Ministry after it contracted M/SEP to rehabilitate a tennis court at the Accra Sports Stadium in the year 2000, was initially GH�5,053.20 but increased to GH�177,664.09 in 2010. Abdulai Yakubu, chief director at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, attributed the development to the Ministry�s inability to raise the GH�5,053.20 at that time. �The Ministry did not have money to settle the contractor at that time,� he emphasised. He was subpoenaed to appear before the Judgement Debt Commission to assist it establish why the Ministry paid the said amount to the construction company. Mr Yakubu, who was led in evidence by Dometi Kofi Sorkpor counsel for the Commission, explained that his Ministry on January 7, 2000 awarded the said contract to M/SEP after Ghana was chosen to host the Euro Africa Zone 2 tennis competition. He noted that �the project which was in the sum of GH�69,718.08, was pre-financed by the company and completed within six weeks of receiving the contract. �The contractor was not paid immediately after executing the contract because there was some documentation, which needed to be sorted out. Thus the contractor was paid in three instalments.� The first instalment, which was paid on October 22, 2001 was GH�24,339.53. The subsequent amounts, GH�33,826.29 and GH�9,486.75, were paid on November 6, 2001 and December 31, 2001 respectively. Mr Yakubu further stated that a remainder of GH�5,053.20, was also not immediately paid, prompting M/SEP to serve the Attorney General (AG) with the intention to sue the Ministry for GH�227,664.09. The AG and representatives of the Ministry then held three meetings upon which it was �agreed that the company should be paid GH�177,664.09, an amount the company accepted in 2010 upon negotiation.� Sole Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau, surprised at the Ministry�s inability to settle the earlier debt, remarked, �So between 2001 and 2010 the Ministry could not get GH�5,053.20 to pay the contractor? And government had to later cough up GH�177,664.09. Don�t you find it��I don�t even know how to explain it.� When asked whether the project was budgeted for, Mr. Yakubu replied in the negative, explaining that �Ghana had the opportunity to host the Africa Zone two tournament so we thought it was a very bright opportunity to advance to the Zone one where we shall also be having certain benefits. Due to the deadline given, the Ministry had to quickly take that opportunity to prepare, so we did not budget for the project. Once the project was not budgeted for, it was difficult to source funds from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) for payment to be effected, hence the delay.� In another development, Mr Yakubu upon request from the Commission, provided supporting documents regarding payments that had been made to certain individuals. He explained that the Controller and Accountant General in 2011 had mistakenly credited the account of the Ministry with GH�38,119,023.95 and GH�10,584,295 being payments to Waterville and Alfred Abgesi Woyome respectively. He said, �We only got to know about it when we were doing our monthly reconciliations, and alerted the Controller and Accountant Genera�s Department who later debited the Ministry�s account immediately.� Next to appear before the Commission was Major (Rtd) Samuel Mahama Tara, Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP), who was also subpoenaed to produce supporting documents on compensation payments relating to the following persons: Abdul Muzizz, Davis Kakra Mensah, Davis Panyin Mensah and Philip Agbodoga. He stated that an amount of GH�47,230 was released to MOFEP to enable it to pay these persons, out of which an amount of GH�7,630 was paid to Mr. Agbodoga as compensation, after he was wrongfully accused of robbery. He noted further that he received a directive from the AG�s department to pay the remaining GH�39,600 belonging to the other three persons through their counsel Kulendi & Co. �There was a letter from the AG�s Department authorising the payments that were to be made to the claimants through their legal counsel, Kulendi & Co., which we did. The vouchers were prepared in the name of the beneficiaries as instructed and the payment was duly effected through their legal counsel,� Major Tara emphasised. Sitting has been adjourned to July 24, 2013.