[ 2014-10-27 ]

Study: Judgement debt payments equal size of agric budget
A total amount of GHȼ687.65 million was paid
as judgment debts by the state between 2009 and
2011 -- equal to the budgetary allocation to
agriculture in the three years.

80 percent of these judgement debt payments were
awarded for breach of contract by government.

The figure comes from the Auditor-General's
Reports of 2009-11, and the payments have been
analysed in a report issued last week by the Ghana
Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of
global anti-corruption campaign group Transparency
International.

In 2009, the state paid GHȼ 193.76 million as
judgement debt to one beneficiary, Construction
Pioneers. GII however said it is likely that more
money was paid out to other beneficiaries in that
year “but buried in accounting
classifications.”

In 2010, GHȼ I275.92 million was paid to 41
individuals, 15 business entities, six area
councils, one government institution, two families
and occasioned by infractions by the security
services.

Many of these debts were attributable to downright
incompetence of public officials, negligence by
the Attorney-Gcneral's office and legal violations
by the security services.

The report said “at the heart of most of the
breaches of contract is the corruption or
perception of corruption in contracts signed under
a previous government. Ruling governments are
often torn between executing a contract which they
perceive will only be in the interest of their
political opponent and terminating or varying the
terms.”

Reflecting the view that corruption could be a
possible motivation for the actions of public
officials which eventually lead to judgement debts
being incurred, the report added that “the scale
of dereliction of duty (by public officials) is so
staggering, leaving one to wonder whether this can
be ascribed to incompetence only.”

From the findings of the study, GII issued a
number of recommendations to forestall such
obnoxious payments in future.

It said apart from being surcharged for the loss
they cause the state through judgement debts,
culpable public officials should face charges of
criminal negligence with possible jail terms.

It further said the current practice whereby the
Attorney-Gencral's office alone can negotiate
out-of- court settlements with plaintiffs should
be reviewed, with new limits introduced beyond
which negotiated settlements should receive
parliamentary approval.

Other suggestions included separating the roles of
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General to
insulate the prosecutor's office from undue
political interference, while the GII also called
for a truly independent parliament that can hold
the executive arm of government accountable for
its actions.

It said this would be made possible partly by
amending the Constitution to remove the
requirement that the President picks a majority of
his ministers from parliament.

On the security services, it called for an
overhaul of the curriculum of their training
schools, saying that the “force” mentality
must give way to a “service” mentality, as
this will help security personnel understand that
they must act within the country's laws and not
use brutality and unbridled force in the course of
their duties

Source - MyjoyOnline

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