Finance Minister-designate Ken Ofori-Atta has said that the government is working on sealing judgment debt “leakages” and the impact it has on the economy.
Taking his turn before Parliament’s Appointments Committee to be vetted on Thursday, 25 March 2021, Mr Ofori-Atta noted, in relation to the recently announced judgment debts awarded against Ghana, that: “I think we have tried very hard to renegotiate after the court judgment”.
“It is a leakage that we are aware of that we will like to blunt.”
The International Court of Arbitration recently awarded a cost of $134 million against the government of Ghana over the cancellation of an Emergency Power Agreement with GCGP Limited.
The contract, which was cancelled under Mr Boakye Agyarko’s tenure as Energy Minister, as part of several other energy contracts cancelled by the New Patriotic Party (NPP), also accrued interest of $3 million since 2018.
The contracts were cancelled because the NPP claimed that those power agreements were not needed.
The International Court of Arbitration, in its ruling, ordered the government to Ghana to pay to “GPGC the full value of the Early Termination Payment, together with Mobilisation, Demobilisation and preservation and maintenance costs in the amount of US$ 134,348,661, together also with interest thereon from 12 November 2018 until the date of payment, accruing daily and compounded monthly, at the rate of LIBOR for six-month US dollar deposits plus six per cent (6%).”
The Government of Ghana will also pay an amount of “US$ 309,877.74 in respect of the Costs of the Arbitration, together with US$ 3,000,000 in respect of GPGC’s legal representation and the fees and expenses of its expert witness, together with interest on the aggregate amount of US$ 3,309,877.74 at the rate of LIBOR for three-month US dollar deposits, compounded quarterly” to GPGC.
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com
