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General News of Monday, 30 June 2014

Source: The Informer

Over Ghc130 million judgment debt looms

President John Dramani Mahama’s dream to set up the Justice Apau Judgment Commission shows how the canker of Judgment debts have become an albatross around the neck of successive governments and, have eaten so deep into the fabric of the nation’s economy.

So far, it has emerged that quite a number of cases where judgment debts were awarded against government were as a result of total negligence of and willfulness on the part of some public officials.

With credible documents in the possession of The Informer, it is evident that government will be hit with a judgment debt of Ghc135.3 million, following a decision by the Ghana Book Publishers Association (GBPA) to sue government for Social Studies Atlases supplied the Ministry of Education by its members.

Though the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning through its then Chief Director, Mr. Enoch H. Cobbinah, upon clearance by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) in a letter dated June 28, 2013, had instructed the Administrator of the GETFund to pay the five (5) companies; Approacher’s (Ghana) Limited, Winmat Publishers Limited, Adwinsa Publications Ghana Limited, Sedco Publishing Limited and EPP Books Service that supplied the said Social Studies Atlases, the GETFund Administrator, in a “yen tie obiaa” attitude had refused to carry out the order by the Chief Director of the Finance Ministry.

In a letter to the Ministry of Education, the GBPA has given a 30-day ultimatum to the aforementioned ministry to settle all monies owed it, or risk paying judgment debt of over Ghc130 million, being the principal amount, interest charges and legal cost

Already overburdened with judgment debts, The Informer is humbly calling on the Ghana government to, as a matter of urgency, call the GBPA to a negotiation table in order to avoid its intended legal action.