Martin A.B.K. Amidu
The attempt by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to accuse the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) of making a ‘dubious’ payment to Special Prosecutor Martin A.B.K. Amidu has backfired.
This
is because documents available to DAILY GUIDE show that when the NDC was
in office, it initiated and completed all processes leading to the payments of
GH¢212,545.71 and later GH¢108,935.00 by the NPP administration to Mr. Amidu
for his service as Attorney General in the Mills/Mahama government.
NDC Propaganda
Last
week, the Minority NDC in Parliament accused the NPP government of paying what
it called ‘dubious’ judgment debts to
Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu and others.
It
was Minority spokesperson on Finance and former Deputy Finance Minister Cassiel
Ato Forson, who appeared to impute sinister motive in the payment to Mr. Amidu
when he insisted that the government must give a breakdown of the payments made
and also reveal the identities of the individuals and the companies who had
received the judgment debts during the tenure of the NPP.
After
the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta revealed that the Akufo-Addo administration
had paid over GH¢280 million as judgment debts since it took office in 2017,
Mr. Ato Forson told journalists that “on authority we are hearing that they
have paid the likes of McDan; they have paid Bankswitch and they have paid even
the Special Prosecutor an amount of judgment debt. As to whether they qualify to receive that
amount, it is something we will have to investigate.”
“And
that is why I requested the minister responsible for finance to give us a
breakdown…I don’t think that in the case of the Special Prosecutor…I hear he
went to court; there was a default judgment and the Special Prosecutor has been
paid some amount for the fact that he was wrongfully sacked as minister of
state.”
Main Action
Mr.
Amidu after being removed from his position as Attorney General by then
President JEA Mills when the Woyome judgement debt scandal broke, filed a suit
against the government on July 30, 2013, asking among other reliefs, for
damages for breach of contract of employment as well as an order directed at
the government to pay his entitlement to terminal benefits of four months’
salary for every completed year of service or part plus the allocation of one
official vehicle to be paid for by himself.
He
also sought an order for the payment of 20% of basic salary in lieu of official
accommodation from October 1, 2011 to April 30, 2012 together with interest and
an order of cost of transportation from January 20, 2012 to April 30, 2012 to
date of payment.
The
NDC government, through then Attorney General, filed a statement of defence, admitting
and denying some of the reliefs sought by Mr. Amidu and said his entitlement
had since been calculated and a cheque was issued by the government to the then
Citizen Vigilante.
On
November 19, 2013, Mr. Amidu filed a reply, challenging some of the averments
in the statement of defence that the NDC government filed.
The
parties on September 2, 2014, came to terms of settlement and an entry of
judgement was filed in the court presided over by Justcie K.A. Ofori Atta on
September 11, 2014.
Entry Judgement
In
the entry of judgement, the court had said among other things that “the
defendant (government) undertakes to pay all salary arrears due the plaintiff
(Mr. Amidu) from the last engagement, July 1, 2009 to January 2012, which was
based on the level of a minister (MP) after making all the allowable deductions
for social security, income and others.”
The
court then awarded a cost of GH¢6,000 to Mr. Amidu.
Former Chief of Staff
In
compliance with the court’s order, a letter to the Minister of Finance signed by
then Chief of Staff Julius Debrah in 2015 said that their checks showed that a
first instalment of GH¢108,935 was paid by the Ministry of Justice to Mr. Amidu’s
account in December 2014 through the GIFMIS and a second instalment of
GH¢212,545.71 was paid to the Chief of Staff’s office in September 2015 and
they subsequently issued a cheque in the name of Mr. Amidu which was forwarded
to the A-G’s Department to be forwarded to him.
“Unfortunately,
the first instalment payment of GH¢108,935 could not be completed because the
payee rejected (Mr. Amidu) the payment on grounds that the matter was pending
in court,” adding “therefore, the payment of GH¢108,935 is still outstanding.”
“With
the final determination of the case, it will be appreciated if you could
release the sum of GH¢108,935 to Mr. Amidu to end the matter.”
On
January 9, 2019, Mr. Amidu caused his lawyers to write to the current Chief of
Staff acknowledging receipt of GH¢21,027.22 being remainder of his SSF deductions
in line with the court’s ruling, saying “I signed for them personally on the
evening of December 24, 2018.”
His only concern was that an aspect of the ruling regarding the payment of interest on accruing salaries, rent allowance, arrears and other payments owed him in accordance with Court Rule C.I. 52, had not been complied with and hoped it would be done to bring the matter to finality.
By Gibril Abdul Razak
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