The Sole Commissioner of the Judgement Debt Commission, Justice Yaw Apau, was stunned Tuesday when a state investigator informed the commission that the state did not know about the confiscation of two timber companies, Holex Ghana Limited and Priorities Ghana Limited.
The owner of the two companies located at Akim Oda in the Eastern Region, Nana Emmanuel Woode, who claimed that the state confiscated the companies around 1982, sued the state in 2005.
The failure of the Attorney-General’s (A-G’s) Department to defend the case led to the payment of Ghc3.47m (¢34.7 billion old cedis) to Nana Woode in 2006.
However, the Chief Investigation Officer in charge of Confiscated Assets at the Office of the President, Mr John Kweku Mensah, told the commission at its sitting on Tuesday that the Confiscated Assets Committee (CAC) did not have any records on the confiscation of the two companies.
Mr Mensah, who indicated that he had worked at the CAC since 1982, said “Holex has never been in our records. Priorities has never been in our records.”
“We have never had any of such properties confiscated to the state,” he maintained.
Mr Mensah also told the commission that he had never heard of the name of the owner of the two companies, Nana Woode.
Counsel for the commission, Mr Dometi Kofi Sokpor said there was no docket on the case of Holex Ghana Limited and Priorities Ghana Limited at the Attorney General’s Department.
“We have tried to get the docket from the A-G but to no avail,” he said, summing up the frustration of the commission.
Mr Sokpor said from the records, it was the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning which directed the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) to pay the Ghc3.47m compensation to Nana Woode.
Justice Apau expressed shock that the CAC did not have records of the purported confiscation of the companies. He was again surprised as to how the owner took the case to court and secured the judgement for Ghc3.47million.
Justice Apau suggested that Nana Woode be invited to appear before the commission to answer questions relating to the said confiscation of his companies and the subsequent judgement debt payment.
