The President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe has advised government to tread cautiously in the strategy it is employing to pay off the GHC 197 million judgment owed Bankswitch Ghana.<\/p>\n
He was of the view the barter trade the government has entered into with other companies to help settle the debt could be dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will suggest that the Ministry takes a second look and I don\u2019t know if Dr. Spio Garbrah was making this decision single handedly or it\u2019s the decision of the entire government because as I know, he wasn\u2019t party to this contract so I will suggest that they should speak to the Attorney General for some serious direction\u2026\u201d he said on Eyewitness News.<\/strong><\/p>\n In April 2014, the then Minister of Information and Media Relation, Mahama Ayariga admitted to Citi News<\/strong> that the government made an erroneous decision<\/a><\/strong> <\/span>by cancelling a contract it had signed with Bankswitch Ghana in 2007.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”xNHLWyztUx1ihBTerCp0SZPGO14RzvOG”]A Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague awarded damages amounting to GH\u00a2197,491,874.00 to Bankswitch Ghana after it filed a suit against the government of Ghana for abrogating a contract.<\/p>\n Trade and Industry Minister, Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah in a letter informed all Destination Inspection Companies that \u201cany of them who can advance the government of Ghana an amount of $35million will be awarded a contract of 0.35% of free on board values on all Ghana\u2019s imports for at least a period of five years to enable that company recover its investments.\u201d<\/p>\n Franklin Cudjoe remarked that government is taking this step to pay its debt because of the \u201cadversity we find ourselves in as a country – because we are currently quite broke, the only way you can cough up GHC 197million is to engage in some form of begging but this is begging with panache \u2013 people will be given a piece of the pie but that could be dangerous because if we don\u2019t take care, you may be making a decision because you are facing a difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n According to him, the letter from the Minister sounds sad because it has \u201cundertones of adversity being imposed on the decision that ought to be taken. It\u2019s indeed a very sad letter and I don\u2019t know how the Minister himself feels.\u201d<\/p>\n The IMANI boss added that a careful read of the letter indicates that the government has assumed a position of admittance of its failure and the government\u2019s quest to embark on this barter deal may probably not be wrong \u201cbut it\u2019s funny at the same time it\u2019s troubling and heart wrenching.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Cudjoe nonetheless stressed that it is important for the state to be careful on how \u201cwe go about what looks like a barter deal out of a desperate situation.\u201d<\/p>\n He warned that a terrible mistake made by abrogating the contract is what has earned the country a judgment debt therefore, government should make sure it does not make such \u201can utterly despicable one [mistake] simply because you are desperate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would have been pleased if the letter were coming from the Attorney General\u2019s office signed and sealed because they were representing us in the court case that ensued,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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