Benjamin Kunbuor and Enoch Kobbina, Chief Director of Ministry of Finance and Ecomonic Planning
ATTORNEY-GENERAL and Minister for Justice, Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor, yesterday clashed with the members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament over the controversial ?94 million judgment debt to Construction Pioneers (CP).
The embattled Attorney-General had a heated argument with the PAC chairman, Albert Kan-Dapaah, over comments he recently made to the parliamentary committee which turned out to be untrue.
Dr. Kunbuor had told PAC that his predecessor, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, had negotiated with CP and committed the state to pay the ?94 million based on a judgment from an international court of arbitration, in which Ghana was to pay the construction firm a total amount of ?153 million.
He also threw out an amount of ?614 million, being CP?s claim in the judgment, all of which turned out to be false.
The Attorney-General insinuated that the ?153 million was contained in the final judgment of the court, which he recently brandished at the PAC sitting and indicated that Betty Mould-Iddrisu negotiated and reduced this amount to ?94 million.
However, when a copy of the document was made available to members of PAC, it was revealed that the court had indeed given a judgment of ?49 million to CP and not ?153 million.
After vehemently protesting the issue, Dr. Kunbuor ate the humble pie and agreed with the ?49 million figure awarded to CP.
Nonetheless, he could not satisfactorily explain to the committee why CP was paid ?94 million and not ?49 million, indicating it could have been due to interest on the judgment debt.
It was at this point that Mr. Kan-Dapaah indicated that the Attorney-General was not being ?very truthful? with the committee.
?Mr. Attorney-General, you did not tell us the truth on this matter,? Mr. Kan-Dapaah remarked.
Not enthused about the PAC Chairman?s comment, Dr. Kunbuor flared up, vowing not to assist the committee on the controversial saga unless he was given audio and video recording as wells as ?professional transcripts? of what he had said at previous sittings.
Proceedings were brought to an abrupt end after Mr. Kan-Dapaah promised that his committee would produce the voice recordings of the attorney-general and other relevant documents that had been requested.
Dr. Kunbuor had earlier apologized to the committee for recently creating the wrong impression that the court of arbitration awarded a judgment of ?614 million to CP, based on which Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu negotiated for Ghana to pay the construction firm ?94 million.
Dr. Kunbuor insinuated to the committee, which has the powers of the High Court, that the ?614 million was contained in the final judgment from the international arbitration.
The said judgment, according to him, was made in October 2006 and it was based on this new figure that Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu negotiated with CP and agreed to pay ?94 million.
He virtually supported the settlement agreement spearheaded by his predecessor, claiming that but for the negotiating skills of the former Attorney-General, Ghana could have paid more money to Construction Pioneers.
Oddly, the Attorney-General held the document to his chest and refused to give it to the PAC even when Mr. Kan-Dapaah requested to have a look at it.
He told PAC the document was his personal copy but promised to make it available to the committee at a later date.
It was this document that members of the committee eventually received and realized Dr. Kunbuor?s testimonies were not wholly factual.
In what looked like a dramatic u-turn, the Attorney-General indicated that the ?614 million was the claim by CP which was contained in a correspondence from the company?s solicitors.
According to him, government did not accept the claim and that he only used the ?614 million for illustrative purposes, just to show that if government had not acted fast, Ghana was going to pay so much to CP.
?I will take personal responsibility if my comment turned out to be misleading,? he apologized.
He reiterated his statement that Ghanaians should brace themselves for more judgment debts as there were a pile of them on the way.
By Awudu Mahama
