As citizens of this great nation of ours, we have a common objective to make sure our nation is put on a footing that will ensure total economic progress in our society and equitable distribution of whatever wealth we collectively generate. According to the latest census figures released by the statistical service, our nation’s current population stands at 24million people. All these people have aspirations to live a meaningfully dignified life. And to do this; a condition needs to be created for every hardworking individual to work towards his/her God’s given talent.
And because we all can’t be in position of decision making in order to ensure the realization of personal dreams, we have devised for ourselves, a system of governance where we go to the polls,periodically,to select just a few of our compatriots to decide for us, the direction we need to take our nation’s socio-economic agenda. Through the sweat and toil of the suffering Ghanaian taxpayer like the ‘kayaye’,truck-pusher, ice water seller, ‘kofi broke-man’ vendor, groundnut/banana seller, shoe shine boys,trotro/taxi drivers etc., huge quantum of monies are collected daily by way of taxes.
Now, huge percentage of this tax revenue is set aside for the purpose of providing this infinitesimal group of people we go to the polls, every four years to elect into positions of trust, all the comfort under the sun. So for example, a truck pusher who pays daily taxes from his meager income following a back-breaking work schedule, ends up paying for even malaria treatment all by himself, while on the other hand, these parasitic state officials being provided with all the comfort under the sun and yet superintending over reckless dissipation of state coffers through dubious “judgment debts”, are quickly flown abroad just to undergo what has now become famously known on our Ghanaian political landscape as “a routine medical check”.
Guarding our nation’s resources
Consequently, these state officials are expected to be guardians of our nation’s recourses and make sure it is equitably distributed. These people are supposed to think and come up with cogent and pragmatic ways of dealing with our myriad of problems so that the ordinary person who went and stood in the scotching sun for hours on Election Day, will have his time worth.
These people are supposed to protect the coffers of state with the zeal of a lactating lioness protecting its young ones. But rather disgracefully, instead of these people solving our problems, they have rather become huge albatross on overburdened necks of the ordinary Ghanaian. Instead of protecting our nation’s coffers, they have rather ended up as unprecedentedly gargantuan plunderers of our nation’s coffers. And instead of thinking of the welfare of ordinary Ghanaian taxpayer and the general forward movement of our dear nation, all their worries are clinically focused on their gluttonous stomachs!!!
Effects of a weak president
Coupled with these frightening levels of greed being displayed by appointees of the current Atta-Mills-led administration, is the total weakness, legendary aloofness and unsurpassed weakness of the president himself. We currently have a leader who, as a result of chronic ailments which was expertly concealed in 2008, has now ceded all his presidential powers to the greedy bastards around him in order to throttle across the globe in-search of remedy to his health problems.
There have been instances where people have made appointment to positions only for the president’s own choice for the same position to end up as a gargantuan gate-crusher.Koku Anyidoho issued a presidential ‘fatwa’ dismissing a non-existent boss of Ashanti regional ECG, at the time the president was in deep slumber and had absolutely no knowledge of Koku’s unprecedented usurpation of his (Mills) presidential powers. This is why when the president initially told the good people of this nation that he was completely oblivious to the fact that a huge chunk of our nation’s cash has been dished out to Alfred Agbesi Woyome, some great minds in our nation tend to believe him.
However, recent revelations by Martin ‘citizen vigilante’ Amidu have expose the president as not being truthful to Ghanaians. The straw that finally broke the camel’s back is this caution statement Alfred Agbesi Woyome made to the police, in which he explicitly spelt out how he was invited to the seat of government, and in the presence of Alex Segbefia, Valarie Sawyer, Henry Martey Newman and Betty Mould-Idrrisu who are two deputy chiefs of staff, substantive chief of staff and attorney general, at the time, respectively.
The road to judgment debt thievery
Ghanaians were told, at the beginning of this whole Woyome saga that Betty Mould-Iddrisu and her staff at the AG’s office had rather done Ghana a whole lot of good by skillfully negotiating with Alfred Agbesi Woyome to beat down his suit for the figure of over Ghc120m to Ghc51m.But what these state officials that are neck-deep in this whole gargantuan state-sanctioned thievery have kept away from Ghanaians is that Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome, who claims he did some works for the Ghana Government with his lawyers, initiated a court action against the government on the 19th of April 2010.
On the 21st of April the Attorney General who is the lawyer for the State or Government of Ghana, entered an appearance, but however did not file for defense. On the 24th of May 2010, the court gave a judgment on behalf of Alfred Woyome because the AG did not file a defense. On the same Judgment, the court ordered that GhC105 million should be paid to Mr. Woyome, and without any protest the AG accepted the ruling.
However on the 4th June 2010, the AG went to court and said to the judge that the Government and Mr. Woyome had come to a settlement of GH54 million and therefore the judge accepted that as the new judgment for the case. On the 11th of June after a week, the Attorney General went back to court and informed the court she intends filing a defense since she now had new evidence on the case; and she filed the defense on the same day.
On 6th September 2010 the Judge gave a partial judgment on the issue which states that since the money was to be paid in installment, the first payment which has already been done which was GhC17m on should be allowed to stand. However the two subsequent installments should held until the final determination of the case.
Curiously however, according to the Auditor General’s report, full payments of the three installments were paid to Mr. Woyome on the 4th of June 2010 even before fresh writs was served. Also whiles the AG was going to and from the courts, she herself had already written to the Minister for Finance to pay Mr. Woyome also on the 4th of June 2010 and the cheque was cleared the same day.
It baffles the minds of all Ghanaians, that, even though the AG knew that the full amount of money had been paid to Mr. Alfred Woyome on the 4th of June 2010, since she had already written a letter to the Minister of Finance directing for payment to be effected; she deliberately went to court on the 11th of June to file a fresh writ. Also since the government of Ghana did not have any agreement with Mr. Woyome as he had claimed in his press statement and on Peace FM; why was the money paid into his private account instead of the company with which government had done business with?
Closing the stable-gate after the horse has bolted
In simple terms, “a judgment debt" is a ruling by a court of competent jurisdiction which must be executed to the letter. So, by what authority is saint Atta-Mills now saying he has placed a limit on quantum of money his administration is going to be paying in "judgment debt" from now on?
Undoubtedly, the report that saint Atta-Mills-led cabinet has now decided to put a cup of Ghc10m on judgment-debt payments unless with tacit approval of cabinet, when a gargantuan cash of over $600m has already been paid under dubious circumstances, is indeed, a classic case of belated cosmetic act of "closing the stable after the horse has bolted”. Such a move is what I will term as a NAUSEATING JOKE FROM A BUNCH OF INSIPID CLOWNS and I believe Ghanaians will now understand why I have always described the saint Atta-Mills-led government as totally confused incompetent bunch who always talk before they think.
Now, because Alfred Woyome’s name sounds so damn sexy in the ears of the ordinary Ghanaian, we all seem to have forgotten about a rather astronomic figure of over €92m ($170m) which has been dished out to Construction Pioneers (CP) just like how chunks of fresh meat are thrown into cages of carnivorous animals in a zoo. And to keep this grand scheme of unprecedented state sanctioned thievery in the minds of Ghanaians, I would like us to constantly have this chorus on our lips:
Construction pioneer; judgment debt yi y3 hu!
Construction pioneer; judgment debt yi y3 heavy!!
Construction pioneer; judgment debt yi y3 tough!!!
Construction pioneer; judgment debt yi y3 bue!!!!
Construction pioneer; judgment debt b3n nie!!!!!
Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei
E-mail: [email protected]