‘No judgment debt account at BoG’

By Edmund Smith-Asante

A Deputy chief manager representing the director of Banking at the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on Wednesday told the Judgement Debt Commission that there was no  “special judgement debt account” at the BoG.

Speaking to the issue of a special account opened at the central bank from which judgement debts are paid by the government, Mr Gabriel Bokor, the Deputy Chief Manager of the Banking Department, BoG, said the account number referred to by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) in the matter of payment to some clients was rather a five-year treasury bond account.

Responding to questions from the commission, Mr Bokor said: “I will like to state that the account you have mentioned, that is account number 0113060014036, is not a judgement debt account. In fact, it is a five-year treasury bond monitoring account.”

As a proof, he tendered in a document that indicated the absence of any judgement debt account at the BoG.

Mix-up in letters

He stated that a letter received from the CAGD “did not quote the account in question” but that the letter dated Nov. 4, 2008, rather quoted the Ministry of Finance, account number, 0121360058003.

However, Counsel for the Commission, Mr Dometi Kofi Sokpor, who said the letters in contention were dated January 11, 2007 and January 15, 2007 respectively and referred to the same special account, read out a copy of the attachment that supposedly should have been received by the BoG from the CAGD.

It read: “The debit should be raised against account number 0113060014036 (special account designated for the payment of judgement debts)”.

Mr Bokor said no such letter was received by the BoG, adding, “even, we realised that the account number, when we did our work, it is a five-year treasury-bond monitoring account and we don’t have any special account for judgement debts, my Lord,” he repeated.

The Commissioner, Mr Justice Apau, nevertheless said: “The January 11 one was signed by the Controller himself, Christian T Sottie, and addressed to the Director, Banking Department, reference number PDI A4029/Judgment Debt/07/01/11. Then the second letter was signed by the Deputy Controller and Accountant General, Ms Grace F. Adzroe.”

Still confused, Mr Apau said both letters, which quoted the same account number, had the same descriptions and were both addressed to the Director of  Banking Department, Bank of Ghana in 2007.

BoG lawyer steps in

Mr Saviour Kudze, a lawyer at the legal department of the BoG, who accompanied Mr Bokor, explained that those letters were not attached to their subpoena, adding, “In any case, it’s not for a special judgement debt account; it’s for a five-year treasury- bond monitoring account.

The BoG representatives were, therefore, tasked to take copies of the attachments in question and find out from the BoG Banking Department if they had received such letters or not and how they were handled.

“It is surprising that the Controller will quote this account number and describe it as special judgment debt account, not even once, but twice, and the signatures were by the controller himself and one by his own deputy,” Mr Apau said.

Mr Kudze explained that when such letters came and they realised that they had made any mistake, they were returned to the sender “because we cannot act wrongly on their instructions.”

The commission, therefore, indicated that it would subpoena the Controller and Accountant General so there would be a clarification of the issue.

Writer’s email: Edmund.Asante@graphic.com.gh

This story was first published by the Daily Graphic on March 28, 2014