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Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice under the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Joe Ghartey, has accepted responsibility for everything that happened at the Attorney-General�s Department when he was a minister. As minister at the time, he said, �The buck stops with me.� He made the statement when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on Friday to answer questions relating to the award of a �94million judgment debt against the state, in favour of Construction Pioneers (CP). The case is similar to the infamous Woyomegate scandal in which GH�51 million was paid as judgement debt to the self-acclaimed financier of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alfred Agbesi Woyome, who is in police custody for suspected fraud against the State. The case is currently being investigated by the police and the High Court. Former Attorney-General Betty Mould-Iddrisu, who ordered the payment of the amount to Mr Woyome, was the same minister who signed the �Settlement Agreement� for the payment of the �94million to CP. Mr Ghartey, in his bid to explain his role in the CPP issue, noted that in spite of whatever might have happened during the period in reference, �I hesitate to add; I must add quickly that the decision was mine. Once I was Attorney-General, the buck stops with me; just that I am a Member of Parliament and thankfully I have no responsibility in that regard.� In one of the cases in which CP was demanding $50million as compensation for the Assin-Praso, Yamoransa and Akim-Oda roads that had not been built, Mr Ghartey said, �It was money in my view not justified.� �The view I took was that the Minister of Finance himself should be involved in the settlement having regard to the high amount that they were talking about,� he explained, coupled with the fact that he did not have control over the nation�s purse. According to him, the company�s reason for making claim was that it had mobilised to the site but the engineers insisted they had not given them the authority to mobilise on site and �when you sign a construction contract, you just don�t take your machines to site; you wait until they give you permission to go on site�. For this reason, he said, the country instituted a fraud action against CP at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), now the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO), one in the High Court and another at the Appeals Court to set aside the arbitrary award. Mr Ghartey first demanded to have a look at the �Settlement Agreement� which was before the committee. The agreement was reached in March 2010 between the Government of Ghana, represented by then Attorney-General, Betty Mould-Iddrisu and Messrs Construction Pioneers (CP), a construction company, as judgment debt. Mr Ghartey, who was A-G from June 16, 2006 to January 6, 2009, gladly admitted that even as Deputy A-G, he was involved in the matters with the company but became more involved when he became the substantive A-G because of the amount involved, emphasising, �The higher the amount, the more likely it will be brought to your attention.� In spite of the fact that he had travelled to London on two separate occasions on international arbitration over the issue, once with the Attorney-General and the other with the Ministry�s external solicitors, he said, �I took it upon myself to convince myself that indeed we had a case.� The problem, he said, had to do with the Briwa-Takoradi road project because �we were advised that the contract that was entered into was tainted by fraud; we were advised that the rate that was used to calculate how much should be paid the contractor was loaded�. He was however not in a position to tell whether the contract was tainted with fraud right from the time of its signing in the year 2000, when Dr Ato Quarshie was the minister. He stated, �What I am in a position to say is that the experts; the people from Highways, were telling us that there was a problem with that contract.� �Mr Speaker, I was the fourth Attorney-General to deal with the matter, the Attorney-Generals who came before me, I had respect for them; they were lawyers I knew in private practice. I had no reason to believe that their judgment was wrong but in spite of that�I also had to convince myself that we had a case,� he said. He claimed there was an existing provision in the Ghana Highways Authority Act which mandated the Chief Executive of the Highways to execute contracts on behalf of the Authority. That notwithstanding, the former A-G said, �that contract that was executed that they were saying was loaded was executed by Dr Ato Quarshie�. �I remember the official from Highways insisting that contracts of that nature should be executed and they were saying that the purpose of that provision is that it was such a technical matter; that it is they the engineers who can have a proper assessment of the contract and know whether Ghana is being short-changed or not,� he told the committee. Interestingly, Mr Ghartey said in one of the matters, Dr Ato Quarshie gave evidence for CP though he gladly admitted one had the right to choose who to testify for. He has since asked to be furnished with the CP�s claim; Ghana�s response and the award to enable him to answer specific questions pertaining to the issue under investigation. Betty was dodgy when she took her turn before the committee. She declined to confirm or deny whether it was her signature that was on the �Settlement Agreement�, a copy of which was before the committee. She insisted on having a copy for verification purposes before confirmation but when it was extended to her, Betty said, �Honourable Chairman, there is a current Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and I wonder at his non availability or his non presence here. I see the officials of my former colleagues at the Ministry of Justice and I know as you said I always insist on coming and there are other colleagues.� In the end, she said, �I have not been given the document; I don�t have the mandate of the Attorney-General, I cannot speak to the document unless I know it is the official document of the Attorney-General. Honourable Chairman, I am not being difficult; I am just asking for some time to be able to set my own records in order so that the oath that I have undertaken here I will be able to fulfil it to the best of my ability.�