Gov’t deliberately incurred $170 mil. judgment debt – McCarthy jabs

Editor for the Hawk newspaper, Charles McCarthy has flayed the Akufo-Addo government over  a 170 million judgment debt awarded against the government of Ghana for terminating a contract with a power producer.

GPGC won a 170 million dollar judgment debt against the Government of Ghana at the London Commercial Court of international arbitration earlier this month for the government’s decision.

Attorney General, Godfred Dame earlier accused the erstwhile Mahama government of entering into an inappropriate power agreement with Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) that the Akufo-Addo government abrogated.

Dame has vowed to initiate investigations into the matter, but reacting to the issue on the Morning Update on TV XYZ, McCarthy chastised Godfred Dame for his negligence.

“The debt that we have incurred was deliberate…that was a lame excuse…You are placing Corona and elections over this case?…this is lazy [work],” the vociferous journalist stated.

To him, the state Attorneys failed to represent the country well especially when there was a period for the country to challenged the judgment.

The Verdict

A three-member arbitration tribunal chaired by John Beechey, a former President of the International Criminal Court’s Court of Arbitration, and co-chaired by Prof Albert Fiadjoe, a Ghanaian academic, sided with the power producer and awarded a judgment debt of almost US$170 million against the state, following the termination the contract.

According to British law, the government had 28 days to challenge the tribunal’s decision but only made an appearance three days to the expiration of the deadline to ask for a 56-day extension.

However, the court set March 8, 2021, for the Government to file the processes to challenge the Tribunal’s decision in January. But again, the government went to sleep until April 1, 2021, before filing.

Another British law firm, Volterra Fietta, that the government had instructed to begin the process explained that the new Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, had only been sworn in on March 5, and the firm received the directive to represent Ghana 10 days later.

But ruling on the matter on June 8, 2021, the court had no sympathies.  It said the excuses were unreasonable and “intrinsically weak.”

Source: Myxyzonline.com|Ghana