AG paid ₵67M Judgement Debt to CP without Cabinet's approval

The 2016 Auditor-General’s report has disclosed that the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice made payments to the tune of GHS 67,380,718.20 to Construction Pioneers (CP) as judgement debt without Cabinet’s approval.

The audit report stated that the Ministry “could not provide any documentation with regards to the court judgement” The report said: “Management’s failure to investigate the cause of the direct debit for appropriate action resulted in the anomaly.”

In 2012, the then-government, led by later president John Evans Atta Mills directed that judgements debts in excess of GHS10,000,000 be approved by Cabinet before settlement.

However, a review of bank documents of the ministry suggested that the 67 million was paid in two instalments: GHS42,820,418.48 on 20 February 2015 and GHS24,560,299.72 on 1 April 2015, even though no documentation points to approval by Cabinet at the time.

The Auditor-General has, therefore, advised that “management should obtain the court judgement and all relevant documents to authenticate the payment” made during the tenure of former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong.

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