Article 94(2d) states
A person shall not be qualified to be a member of Parliament if he –
d) has been found by the report of a commission or a committee of inquiry to be incompetent to hold public office or is a person in respect of whom a commission or committee of inquiry has found that while being a public officer he acquired assets unlawfully or DEFRAUDED STATE or MISUSED or ABUSED his office, or willfully acted in a manner prejudicial to the interest of the State, and the findings have not been set aside on appeal or judicial review;
Read below to ascertain how state office was misused and abused through willful actions prejudicial to the interest of the state by Hon K T Hammond;
The Judgement Debt Commission made the following findings of fact:
i. The GNPC entered into a contract involving derivatives or hedging with the SG, a French commodities bank, in 1996 under the NDC Government.
ii. A dispute arose, and SG sued GNPC in a London High Court over payments that SG alleged GNPC owed it.
iii. GNPC denied the claim and counter-claimed against SG through its external lawyers, Bindman & Partners, for negligent advice given by SG.
iv. Subtle attempts by the two parties to settle the matter out of court came to no avail.
v. In 2001, the NPP Government which had replaced the NDC Government wrote to dispense with the services of Bindman & Partners, the GNPC’s external lawyers in the case`, and asked Ghana’s Attorney-General, Hon. Nana Akuffo Addo, to assume responsibility for the conduct of the case.
vi. The Ghana Government, through the Deputy Minister of Energy, Hon. K. T. Hammond, resumed the settlement talks with SG, but the Government neither appeared to defend SG’s action in the London High Court nor informed the Court about the out-of-court settlement attempts.
vii. The London High Court entered a default judgment against the GNPC for US$47 million in June 2001.
viii. At the time of the default judgment, SG had accepted a final out-of-court settlement of US$14 million from the Ghana Government.
ix. Hon. K. T. Hammond was sent by President J. A. Kufuor to Paris and London to amicably resolve the US$47 million default judgment debt with SG by convincing the Company to accept the US$14 million out-of-court settlement instead of insisting on the US$47 million judgment debt.
The result of Hon. K. T. Hammond’s efforts was a compromise settlement of US$19.5 million.
x. The Government of Ghana then decided to sell one of GNPC’s marine assets, the Drillship ‘Discoverer 511’, a going, profit-making concern, to pay off the compromise settlement amount of US$19.5 million.
xi. The Acting Managing Director of GNPC, Dr. Ofori Quaah, was made to sign a Power of Attorney for and on behalf of GNPC (in the Office of the Attorney- General) empowering Hon. K. T. Hammond to sell the Drillship ‘Discoverer 511’ while in London and use the proceeds to pay off the debt owed by GNPC.
xii. Hon. K. T. Hammond sold the Drillship for US$24 million, used US$19.5 million to pay off the debt, and gave US$1 million to the London solicitors who had represented Ghana in the Drillship sale negotiations, Constant & Constant, out of which they were to take US$100,000 for their services and keep the balance of US$900,000.00 to cater for the future debts of GNPC to other creditors. He handed over the remaining US$3.5 million to Ghana’s High Commissioner in London.
xiv. This was how money belonging to the Corporation which was alleged to be in a huge financial distress was utilized on the blind side of the Management and Board of the Corporation, contrary to Act 64 that established the Corporation.
On the judgment debt and the sale of the Drillship transactions, the Commission made the following findings and observations:
iv. The Acting Managing Director of the GNPC, Dr. Ofori Quaah, was not given room to operate and was coerced into signing a Power of Attorney prepared at the Attorney-General’s Office to empower Hon. K. T. Hammond to sell the GNPC’s marine asset, the Drillship, ‘Discoverer 511’.
v. Governmental interference in the running of the affairs of the GNPC accounted to a large extent for that financial loss.
On how the balance of US$3.5 million was utilized, the Commission made the following findings and observations:
i. The cheque for the amount was paid into an account that was opened with the Ghana International Bank in London by the Treasury Office of the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department in London.
ii. US$1.657 million out of the amount was used to defray alleged debts owed by the GNPC.
iii. US$169,548.25 was used to pay monthly salaries of staff not properly described in October 2003 and March 2004.
iv. US$141,361.29 was transferred into a different account with the same Bank. The utilization of the transferred money remains a mystery to date.
v. The outstanding balance of US$1,532,090.46 is unaccounted for to date.
vi. The two accounts were closed in December 2005.
vii. There was no justification for paying the amount of US$3.5 million into a new
account because as the proceeds were from the sale of a GNPC asset, it
belonged to the GNPC and should have been paid into GNPC’s account.
viii. Records on the sale of the Drillship ‘Discoverer 511’ disappeared from the offices of the Attorney-General’s Department and the Ministry of Energy only for Hon. K. T. Hammond to present to the Commission a sealed envelope which he claimed contained the alleged relevant documents; his explanation being that a ‘Good
Samaritan’ who he never identified left it in his pigeon hole in Parliament House.
ix. The Commission’s conclusion is that: “The totality of these developments raises strong suspicions that the whole transaction involving the sale of the Drillship
‘Discoverer 511’ is shrouded in mystery”.
In the light of the established facts and the findings and observations made by the Commission, Government accepts the following recommendations of the Commission:
i. The Minister of Finance and officials of the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department at the Ghana High Commission in London at the time in question, (i.e. between 2001 and 2006), should be made to:
• render proper accounts on how the US$3.5 million that was lodged in the London Bank was disbursed since the money belonged to the GNPC;
Government directs the Economic and Organised Crime Office to undertake the assignment in (i) above.
Government further directs EOCO to investigate the mandate, authority and/or basis of Hon. K.T. Hammond’s disbursement of the US$900,000.00 to the Law Firm ‘Constant and Constant’ to cater for future debts of GNPC to other creditors.
The above findings and recommendations have neither been set aside, nor is it 10yrs and above. Hence it is my humble view that the hon nominee isn’t qualified.
Source:Mybrytfmobline.com
