Govt Must Insure Its Properties

The Judgment Debt Commission at its sitting in Accra on Monday appealed to government to ensure that its properties were insured against accidents. Mr Justice Yaw Appau, sole Commissioner of the Commission said government was doing more harm to itself by refusing to insure its properties rather than demanding individuals and private organisations to insure their properties. He gave the advice when Mrs Dorothy Afriyie Ansah, Chief State Attorney at the Attorney General Department, tendered a document to the Commission and wanted to know whether government had insured the offices of the Commission. According to Mrs Ansah, the document submitted to the Commission was the only copy that the Attorney General Department had in its possession but the Commission assured her that it was going to make copies and handover the original copy back to her. The document was in respect of a case between Michael Teye Boateng and the Attorney General in which Mr Boateng sued the police at an Accra High Court for unlawful arrest and the detention of his vehicle and was awarded 28,000 Ghana cedis as compensation. Also in appearance was Nana Sankrakye Atta, Head of the Bentienena Clan in Jasikan who told the Commission that in 1943, the colonial government acquired some parcels of land at Jasikan but did not pay compensation to the family whose property it was. He (Nana Atta) sometime ago took upon himself to pursue the case and therefore gave the power of attorney to one Emmanuel Ofori from Vakpo to do so but did not instruct him to go to court in respect of the compensation. He however said Ofori consulted lawyer Seth Mensah in Dumogah, who is not known to him (Nana Atta) to pursue the case at the Ho High Court. The Ho High Court entered a default judgment in respect of the acquired land to the tune of GHc 760,000 to be paid as compensation. But Nana Atta said government should not pay the compensation to any claimant until the matter was revisited. The Commission has therefore subpoena the Volta Regional Land Commission and the Jasikan District Assembly to appear before it on the matter. In another development, the Attorney General submitted documents involving retrenched workers of the Irrigation Development Authority who took the case to the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). Mrs Ansah said CHRAJ made some recommendations but they were violated and therefore CHRAJ went to court to enforce its ruling. The court ruled in favour of CHRAJ and slapped an amount GHc 28,000 as compensation to the workers but they finally received GHc 153,000. Mrs Ansah said the court ruled in January 2007 awarding 28,000 as compensation but in July 2008, the amount increased to GHc 153,000 explaining that the interest on the amount was calculated from 1989. Mr Justice Appau said it appeared that public officers were interest in paying huge sums of money as compensation to claimants than small amounts of money due them. The Sole Commissioner gave the assurance that the recent fire outbreak at its former offices at the Old Parliament House never affected the Commission�s operations because it had a backup of the proceedings and promised to conclude its work by June this year.