No Document On GH¢3.4M Judgement Debt Payment


Justice Apau
The Attorney General’s Department says it does not have any document indicating the payment of a whooping sum of GH¢34 billion (GH¢3.4 million) to one Nana Emmanuel Duke Woode for the confiscation of his companies.

The institution responsible for divestiture has also confirmed to the Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts that it knows nothing about the transaction.

Asakkua Agambire, Executive Secretary of Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), last month told the Commission that the DIC had nothing to do with Holex Ghana Limited and Priorities Ghana Limited which were said to have been confiscated from Nana Woode in the heat of the revolution.

‘Holex Ghana Limited and Priorities Ghana Limited have never been subjects for divestiture. We would think that at the time that the companies were confiscated in those circumstances, it is most likely they would have been handed over to the Confiscated Assets Committee located at the Castle and not to the DIC,’ Mr. Agambire had explained.

‘The Confiscated Assets Committee is still operating with an officer at the Castle, Osu. We believe that they would be of assistance to this commission in finding out what happened to these companies,’ he said, adding that ‘as far as the DIC is concerned, they were not forwarded to us or listed for divestiture.’

Documents available to the Commission showed that Nana Woode was awarded a judgement debt around 2006 for the confiscation of his wood processing companies, and the government through the Controller and Accountant General’s Department authorised the Bank of Ghana to release GH¢34,758,343,331 to the claimant.

Yesterday, the AG’s representatives appeared before Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau of the Court of Appeal and said they were yet to come across any docket on the transaction at the department.

Dorothy Afriyie-Ansah, a Chief State Attorney, flanked by Stella O. Badu said, ‘We don’t have a docket on this case. It is a 1994 case.’

She said the AG got to know about the case from the commission. As a result, Justice Apau asked the department to widen its search since the case was part of the list of individuals and establishments who received payments for judgement debts.

The AG’s representative also told the Commission that the department did not have the full file on the case involving three people who sued the government following a lorry accident involving a military vehicle in the Brong Ahafo Region.

The Commission said it was closing the docket on the Volta River Authority Wusuta resettlement site and farmlands after the Sole-Commissioner said investigations revealed that some of the payments might not necessarily have been judgement debts.

The Commission requested the AG to furnish it with the latest on the numerous cases involving African Automobile Limited (AAL) and the government.

Earlier, Seyywoe Kwakuvi-Zagbedeh, an Assistant State Attorney with the Registrar General’s Department, could not confirm or deny whether AAL was able to file tax returns in 2010 and 2011 or not.

‘We are unable to confirm it. We had slight issues with our system. At the same time you cannot be certain that the company did not file tax returns within that period,’ she emphasised.

She said the department was moving from manual to electronic registration and that had been a challenge. She also confirmed that their checks showed that AAL had not been re-registered.

‘There is no indication that the annual returns have been filed. However, it is too thin to conclude that a company that was formed in 1976 per our records has not filed tax returns.

By William Yaw Owusu

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