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Government has described as fraudulent the payment of GH₵51million to businessman and financier of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alfred Agebesi Woyome.

“The payment to Alfred Agbesi Woyome was inordinate and at the same time fraudulent. It therefore constituted a huge financial loss to the State,” a White Paper on the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into payments from public funds arising from judgement debts and akin matters in part was quoted as saying.

It said there was no basis for the payment of that huge sum to Mr. Woyome since he was not entitled to such payment as revealed by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) in its interim report on the matter.

The Paper, therefore, faulted the trial Court for forcing a Consent Judgement on the State.

“Though the parties in the action filed a supposed Terms of Settlement intending it to be adopted as a consent judgment, the State, before the date slated for the adoption of the said terms, had declared its intention not to go by the terms anymore since it had realised it had a defence to the action. That conduct alone served as a caveat to the trial court in treating the terms as Consent Judgment since it had been robbed of its consensual content.

“The trial court regrettably forced a Consent Judgment on the State. What the trial court described as a “Consent Judgment” was therefore not a Consent Judgment properly so-called. It was a judgment forced on the State by the trial court, which makes it a complete nullity.

“The trial court should have set aside the default judgment it had wrongly entered against the State and allowed the Attorney-General to defend the action as she intimated. The failure of the trial High Court to do so led to the wrong payment of the huge sum of over GHȻ51 million to Alfred Agbesi Woyome who did not deserve it in the least.”