The Supreme Court of Ghana has awarded a judgement debt of GH¢14, 689 against the state and in favour of a private firm, NDK Financial Services.
The firm had been seeking GH¢1.2 billion but instead, the apex court has awarded a significantly lesser amount.
NDK had been making the claim of over the GH¢1.2 billion against the state, being financial obligations to NDK in the form of payments of a judgement debt amount earlier awarded in favour of NDK and interests based on the court’s order.
Accounting firm, PwC, was then appointed by the Supreme Court to establish the veracity of NDK’s claim and also directed the Attorney-General and NDK to prepare legal accounts for the auditing firm to work with.
The Supreme Court’s order followed the Attorney-General’s insistence that the state had fulfilled all financial obligations to NDK.
The court in its judgement on Wednesday, June 2, said the state should pay NDK GHc14, 689.74 instead of the over GHc1.2 billion it was claiming.
Counsel for NDK, Alfred Bannerman Williams, opposed the application which he said “seeks to truncate the execution of the court’s order.â€
The Counsel also challenged the inherent jurisdiction of the Supreme Court based on which the AG had filed the application.
The lawyer was, however, unable to tell the court how much money the AG owed them but said there were ‘unascertained’ payments.
Justice A.A. Benin, a member of the five-member panel of judges that ruled on the matter, told the lawyer that the best thing for both parties to do is to appoint an accountant to audit the accounts and ascertain the interest accrued on the principal amount and the lawyer agreed with him.
The other members of the panel of judges that ruled on the matter include Justice Jones Dotse, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Justice Nene Amegatcher and Justice Sule Gbedegbe (retired).