AG declines NDK GH¢1.2b judgment debt claim

The Attorney General’s Department has filed an application at the Supreme Court to stop NDK Financial Services Limited from making what it termed “unsubstantiated” claim of GH¢1,273,000,000 from the government as judgment debt.

The application opposing the NDK’s claim is expected to be moved today by Deputy Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame.

According to the application deposed to by Sylvester Williams, a Chief State Attorney, “the claims by NDK, which resulted from ‘unjustified calculations’ of interest based on a court’s judgment, if not stopped, will have a serious burden on the public purse.”

NDK Financial Services Limited in 2009 instituted an action against Ahaman Enterprises Limited, the Attorney-General, Alex Aduko and Aduko Kyeremanteng at an Accra High Court.

The Accra High Court entered judgment in favour of NDK, but dismissed its claims against the AG, who acted on behalf of the government.

NDK, however, filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal against the High Court’s decision to dismiss its claims against the AG and it was upheld and followed with a ‘consequential order’ for the payment of all sums that were made under the haulage contract in contravention of the letters of undertaking by the Ministry of Energy 19th August, 2005, 22nd September, 2005, 13th October, 2005, 2nd February, 2006 and 27th April, 2006 after accounts had been rendered by the Ministry of Energy together with interest at 6.5% per month.”

The AG appealed the judgment of the Appeal Court at the Supreme Court which dismissed it.



Latest Application

In the latest application, the AG is contending that as far as the government is concerned, it has already complied with the judgment of the Supreme Court, but NDK continues to make ‘unsubstantiated’ claims for more money.

The AG averred that “NDK through a process of categorizing the judgment debt into ‘ascertained’ and ‘unascertained’ parts, has been persistently making claims for humongous sums from the applicant herein, albeit totally unjustified.”

It said the court’s order “in the view of the state implies that the sum of GH¢867,441.5 plus interest at the agreed rate of 6.5% per month calculated at the close of each day and payable at the end of every month from 1st April, 2009 at the end of every month from 1st April, 2009 till the date of final payment.”

It averred that “payment of any sums made in contravention of the letters of undertaking cast a burden on the respondent to produce evidence of such payment in contravention of the letters of undertaking by the Ministry of Energy.”

“That the respondent treats a certain sum of GH¢268,250.52 paid by the Ministry of Energy to Ahaman Enterprise without reference to respondent in December, 2008 as part of the “unascertained diverted amounts,” the AG’s application averred.

The AG is therefore praying the apex court for an order determining that the amount of GH¢79,510,855.06 paid by the Government of Ghana is in full satisfaction of the judgment given by the court.

Source: dailyguideafrica.com