Kwasi Adjenim-Boateng and Bernard Yaw Atta-Sonno represented Ghana Post
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said it is not aware of any compensation given to two families in Kpetoe in the Volta Region whose lands were taken by the government in the 1980s for the Ghana Armed Forces.
According to Colonel Edward Fiawoo, a staff officer at the Office of the Judge Advocate General who testified on behalf of the Chief Director of MoD, there were no documents indicating compensations had been given even though documents on the acquisition of the land were available.
Testifying before the Sole Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apau, whose commission is investigating the payment of judgement debts, Col. Fiawoo said the land was 247.97 acres and was covered by E.I. 2 of 1983.
He said the value to be paid as compensation was ?632 million as indicated by the Land Valuation Board, and tendered in evidence all the documents covering the said land.
?We don?t have any records as to whether there were payments made to the claimants. We have letters of acceptance by the claimants thanking the Land Valuation Board to commence payment of the amount.?
Col. Fiawoo said that the government acquired the land for the border guards unit of the military at the time but since it had not been fully utilized, CEPS took a portion of it for use.
?The land is still in the name of the Ghana Armed Forces but a portion is being used by CEPS.?
New Twist
However, it turned out later that the usual bureaucracy in government business had ensured that payments were duly made by the claimants after all by the Lands Commission without recourse to the military hierarchy.
Kwesi Bensti-Entchill, Chief Valuer in charge of Compensations at the Lands Commission who is a regular visitor to the commission, admitted that payments were made in two instalments to two affected families in Kpetoe.
?Part payment of ?400 million was made in October 1999 and in April 2000, another ?232 million to the respective parties. I know that full payment was made,? he admitted.
He said ?it has not been the usual practice to notify the beneficiary of the acquisition,? and explain why the GAF was not notified when the compensation was paid.
Ghana Post Saga
Abubakari Millah, Chief Executive Officer of Sky Consult Limited which entered into an agreement with the Ghana Post in 2005 to provide internal money transfer services also appeared before the commission.
He said in the four years that they executed the contract, they raked in GH?6.3 million cash revenue after which they shared the amount, but not all the GH?978,000 due them was paid and therefore had to resort to court action in 2009.
He said their contract was suspended by the Ghana Post in 2008 but they did not received official confirmation on the reasons for the action.
Ghana Post Officials led by their solicitor Kwasi Adjenim-Boateng and Bernard Yaw Atta-Sonno also appeared but said they needed some time to put their documents together.
The ?Commission of Enquiry into the payment of Judgement Debt and Akin? under C.I. 79 to investigate the frivolous and dubious payments of huge monies to undeserving individuals and companies, was appointed by President John Dramani Mahama after public uproar over the payments in what has now come to be termed as Judgement Debts (JD).
Notable among them were payments made to CP (?94 million) and the never-ending case of GH?51.2million parted to the self-styled National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, both of which many believed were dubious and frivolous.
By William Yaw Owusu
