Government grappling with judgment debt in the amount of 675.5 GHC – Minister of Finance

General News of Saturday, July 13, 2019

Source: Ghanacrusader.com

2019-07-13

The government would be initiating new guidelines to isolate court debt payments resulting from failed contracts.

This will involve the inclusion of certain wordings in contracts that would compensate him for judgment-related debts.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Attah revealed this in Parliament on Friday in response to the amount of public debt the government has paid into court since taking office.

He revealed that the state is currently struggling with a judgment debt of 679.5 million GH ¢.

According to him, the debts of judgment unpaid by the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to the government Akufo-Addo amounted to 482.4 million GH ¢.

He indicated that a number of cases had been pending before the courts and that 197.1 million GH ¢ s had crystallized, bringing the total amount of the judgment to 679.5 million GH. ¢.

Ofori Atta said the government continued to pay millions of cedis in court to individuals and businesses for court orders for breach of contract.

"The government's approach is to renegotiate most of these legal debts, to make sure we save as much as we can, and continue to protect public money."

"In one case, we managed to save $ 90 million for taxpayers through negotiations. In another case, we negotiated savings of 130 million GH ¢ on a claim of more than 180 million GH ¢. "

"In total, we had no choice but to pay 42% of the outstanding amount, which represents about 94 million GH ¢ per year, because of the garnishment of our accounts and renegotiations initiated. "

He said the government has adopted a negotiating policy with beneficiaries to protect public funds and optimize resources.

These, he said, include formulating certain contracts in government compensation contracts, negotiating with asylum seekers to avoid costly lawsuits and court debts and negotiating with the plaintiffs after the judgment.

Former deputy finance minister Cbadiel Ato Forson, however, contradicted the finance ministers and said the government had paid people who did not deserve a debt of justice.

According to him, even the special prosecutor Martin Amidu was sentenced for allegedly unjustified dismissal under the Atta-Mills administration, then in Bankswitch and McDan.

The NDC, he said, negotiated with Bankswitch that he would not pay 80 million GH as interest on a judgment and the parties agreed as such.

"McDan does not qualify for judgment debt because it is not a judgment and we do not know anything about it. This is why we are asking for more and more details. "

"We also dispute that we have left about 200 million ¢ of debts under judgment. We did not leave this type of amount in judicial debt, "he said.

Ato Forson asked the Minister of Finance to provide a breakdown of the numbers indicating who the applicants were and the amounts paid.