ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
For instance, the Honourable Atta Akyea as Minister of Works and Housing approved a payment to the tune of US$5million in 2017.
That ought to have been considered in determining the value of state funds that the Honourable Collins Dauda had misapplied.
In criminal law, an accused is entitled to know with precision the crime that he has committed and the burden that he must discharge in order to prove his innocence.
This is basic criminal jurisprudence and the charges in this case failed to meet the standard of precision required to put an accused person on notice of his criminal liability.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media: The third reason why I dropped the charges in some of the cases was that the evidence adduced so far fell significantly short of what was required to convict the accused and yet the state pressed on with the prosecution.
I consider that to be a total waste of state resources.
As noted by Pwamang JSC in Afoko v. Attorney General , the prosecution may enter a nolle prosequi in situations where upon review of the proceedings, the Attorney General detects fatal flaws in the case which may lead to the acquittal of an accused person.
In other words, a nolle prosequi may be entered to avoid a possible verdict against the prosecution.
My review of some of the cases certainly revealed fatal flaws in the case of the prosecution.
A few examples are in order.
In two of the banking trials still on-going, I took the decision to withdraw the charges against Johnson Pundit Asiama for the simple reason that in the course of my review of the cases, my attention was drawn to an internal memo prepared by the Prosecutions Division of the Department for the attention of the former Attorney General which recommended that the charges against him be dropped.
Note that Johnson Pundit Asiama was charged with contravention of the Bank of Ghana Act for granting a facility of Ghs300million to Universal Merchant Bank and for causing financial loss to the state in the sum of Ghs150million.
The internal memo concluded as follows: “A study of the facts of the case indicates that the initial facility of Ghs300 million has been recovered, leaving GHS150 million outstanding.
The Office has confirmed from the Bank of Ghana (through Mr.
Alexander Taah, PW2), that the interest from the outstanding amount is presently being serviced by UMB Bank.
Taah also indicated that UMB has an amount of GHS150 million locked up with CBG.
It is expected that when the said sum is released to UMB, the loan amount for which A3 [Johnson Pundit Asiama] was charged with causing financial loss will be repaid to the Bank of Ghana.
This therefore may render the charges proffered against A3 moot, leading to his discharge.”
Obviously, the former Attorney General failed to act on these recommendations which were made to him by the Prosecutions Division.
If he disagreed with the recommendations, I am unable to say but I agree with them.
Based upon these recommendations, I dropped the charges against Johnson Pundit Asiama in both the Unibank and UT Bank cases.
In coming to this decision, I am fortified by the Rule 40(2)(a) of the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct and Etiquette) Rules, 2020 (L.I.
2423) which provides that, in a criminal case, a prosecutor shall refrain from prosecuting a charge that the prosecutor knows is not supported by the facts.
But note that I have not yet dropped the charges against the remaining accused persons because I am currently in discussions with the receivers in order to understand the financial implications of any decision I may take in these cases.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media: My third reason for dropping the charges was that, in some of the cases, the evidence led so far showed that there was reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the accused persons and, as stated earlier, the ethics of the legal profession mandate that a prosecutor should not continue to pursue a case in the face of overwhelming doubt regarding the guilt of the accused.
In other words, where a charge is not supported by the facts and evidence, a prosecutor is ethically enjoined to drop the charges.
In the case of Republic v. Stephen Opuni & Another , the entire case was built around the fact that an untested liquid fertilizer, Lithovit fertilizer, was purchased by COCOBOD and further that this fertilizer was not efficacious.
In the event, according to the case of the state, all sums of money spent by COCOBOD to purchase this fertilizer caused a financial loss to the state.
Rather strangely, not a single farmer was called by the Prosecution to prove this fact.
On the contrary, officials at COCOCBOD who were invited by the investigators, gave statements to the effect that Lithovit fertilizer was one of the most effective fertilizers purchased by COCOBOD and that farmers preferred this Lithovit fertilizer to the granular fertilizer.
More importantly, in the course of the investigation, COCOBOD took statements from two farmers.
Whiles 1 (one) stated that he did not see any significant change on his farm, the second farmer stated that after using Lithovit fertilizer, he saw a significant increase in yield, and that Lithovit fertilizer is a very good fertilizer.
Again, in the course of the trial, the defence tended an official report from COCOBOD which covered field visits by COCOBOD officials.
The report, which was tendered, is to the effect that Lithovit fertilizer is a very good fertilizer and that farmers actually preferred Lithovit fertilizer to other fertilizers and was the fertilizer of choice in areas in which Lithovit fertilizer was supplied.
This is clear evidence that contrary to the case of the Prosecution, the use of Lithovit fertilizer rather increased yield.
The farmers who used Lithovit fertilizer, including the then national best farmer, in their evidence testified that Lithovit fertilizer use increased their yield and that Lithovit fertilizer is a good fertilizer.
During the course of their investigations, the investigators had two reports from Ghana Standards Authority on Lithovit fertilizer.
The first report, which was later confirmed to have been done at the cosmetics department (the department which doesn’t have the mandate to test lithovit) of the Ghana Standards Authority, indicated that the sample of Lithovit fertilizer submitted for testing did not have any fertilizer ingredient in it.
This finding was challenged by the accused persons and the investigators, together with representatives of COCOBOD, and the suppliers of Lithovit fertilizer took a second sample from the warehouse of COCOBOD.
This sample which was again tested by the same Ghana Standard Authority, but this time, by the proper department with the mandate to test fertilizers, concluded that the samples taken was the fertilizer and that the fertilizer was efficacious.
Furthermore, it is interesting to note that in this case, the complainant Dr.
Adu Ampomah who was the 3 rd prosecuting witness, PW3, lied under oath, to implicate the accused persons for which reason a perjury application was filed by Dr.
Stephen Kwabena Opuni against him.
The then trial judge, Justice Honyenuga, for reasons which are totally unacceptable, did not hear the application, but rather stated that hearing the application would prejudice hearing of the main case.
He therefore adjourned the application until the conclusion of the case.
This is most unacceptable because in a criminal trial it is important to hold the scale of justice evenly and any doubt raised must inure to the benefit of the accused.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media and my fellow country men and women: The judiciary in our country is independent under the Constitution.
In the context of criminal justice, judges demonstrate their independence by remaining neutral and impartial arbiters in disputes between the state and individual citizens.
The scales of justice must be held in a delicate balance between the obligation of the state to prosecute crime and the right of the accused to a fair trial.
Conduct by judges that undermines the fair trial rights of citizens should be concerning to the prosecution.
Without meaning to impugn the integrity of any of the judges who were involved in the cases in respect of which I have either entered a nolle prosequi or withdrawn the charges, I am deeply concerned not only about the conduct of some of the judges but also concerned about the fact that the executive branch took certain actions that could be reasonably interpreted as inducements to convict the accused persons.
An ethical prosecutor must endeavor to protect the innocent and convict the guilty and one cannot do so if the judiciary is not impartial.
When Justice Honyenuga single-handedly expunged otherwise exculpatory evidence from the record in the Opuni case and then proceeded to rule that the accused had a case to answer in his ruling on their submission of no-case, he was far from portraying a vraisemblance of neutrality.
Indeed, he directly undermined the fair trial rights of the accused persons.
Again, when, in accordance with law and practice, Justice Anokye Gyimah decided he was going to hold a de novo trial in the same Opuni case, he was instantly transferred to Kumasi and the case was allocated to a new judge who then proceeded to adopt the proceedings.
Also, the decisions by the executive branch of government to promote some judges who were sitting on some of the cases is very concerning.
The perception whether true or not is that the promotion may be an inducement to convict the accused persons.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media and my fellow country men and women: In conclusion, I wish to make it clear that I did not take these decisions lightly.
As I indicated above, I consulted widely and reviewed the files diligently before coming to a decision on each of the cases.
You would note that in some cases, such as the SSNIT case and the banking cases, I withdrew charges against some of the accused persons while others are under consideration.
I am keenly aware of the need to balance the public interest against the interests and rights of the accused persons.
Also, as Attorney General, I take absolute responsibility for all the decisions taken so far.
I am not under any instructions or pressure to discontinue any case or to bring charges against one.
Those who are in a haste to tag the President as a clearing agent should hasten slowly because he is not responsible for prosecutions and has not directed me to drop any case.
Moreover, with the exception of one charge of bribery in the Opuni matter in respect of which no evidence was led, none of the persons affected by my decisions so far has looted state resources.
There is a gulf of difference between the offense of causing financial loss to the state and the offenses of bribery, corruption or that of using public office for private gain.
In the latter offenses, the individual charged can be accurately labelled as looters; in the former it would be thoroughly unfair and defamatory to label the accused as persons who have looted state resources.
The Minority Group in Parliament held a workshop on Sunday July 17 2022 at the Volta Serene Hotel.
Below is full text of the speech delivered by former President John Mahama: My brother the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, Leadership of the Minority Caucus, Members of the Caucus, Ladies and gentlemen.
It is a real pleasure to join you at the end of what I believe has been a very useful workshop to sharpen your skills and boost your repertoire of knowledge as Parliamentarians.
Though many, including my good self, have gone through this path you find yourselves as MPs, the composition of the 8th Parliament under the Fourth Republic, places you at the centre of history.
It has also brought in its wake, a unique responsibility and burden of expectation never witnessed.
The people of Ghana, in their own wisdom, have decided to produce a hung Parliament in which none of the two major parties who have dominated the house in the recent past, have a clear advantage.
As the Rt.
Speaker ruled at the inception of this Parliament, there is no Majority or Minority side.
What we rather have is a Majority group and a Minority group.
We in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) maintain that, but for the abuse and misuse of security goons with the connivance of the Electoral Commission to overturn the true outcome of the 2020 elections, we would have secured a clear majority in Parliament.
This unprecedented Parliamentary outlook reflects years of criticism and demands by our people for a strong and assertive legislative arm of government that is truly independent of the excessively powerful Executive.
It also reflects a desire for greater scrutiny of the Executive and more efficient exercise of your oversight functions, especially for those of you in the Minority group.
From the very first day therefore, your work was cut out for you.
On the evidence of what we have seen so far, you have done what is within your power to shield Ghanaians against some draconian and very poor policy proposals of the Akufo-Addo government.
You have stood firmly and pushed back against blatant abuse of Parliamentary rules and standing orders.
Deploying unorthodox methods on some occasions, you have held a marauding government, that has viewed itself as invincible and that treats Ghanaians with contempt, at bay and prevented them, as far as possible, from ramming very unpopular policies down the throats of our people.
As you have done this, the Akufo-Addo administration has intensified its efforts to whittle down your numbers.
It has not shied away from using bizarre judicial processes to achieve this objective.
A case in point is how our MP for Assin South remains an MP yet is barred from performing his functions in Parliament.
This has unjustifiably and inexplicably denied the people of Assin South, representation in Parliament at a time when other constituencies where legal disputes have arisen over the Parliamentary elections of 2020 have their MPs discharging their duties until the determination of the substantive maters brought against them.
They have also sought to use malicious prosecutions against some of you as a way of intimidating you into silence and docility.
These tactics have not diminished your resolve and you continue to remain resolute.
That said, a lot is still expected from you as a Minority group in Parliament.
Given the way state agencies including some arms of government pander to the will of the Akufo-Addo administration and are prepared to undermine the rules and long-established principles to do their bidding, you remain perhaps the last true bulwark between the longsuffering people of this country and total misrule.
You have become the immediate hope of a people who labour under irresponsible governance and abuse of office.
There is the need therefore to meet this expectation by injecting further impetus into your work by keeping an even keener eye on the activities of the Executive.
The scrutiny that you are required to do on behalf of the people who elected you also extends to all state institutions.
The framers of the 1992 constitution intended that a number of these institutions complement the efforts of the Legislature at ensuring good governance.
The style of this administration has been to subjugate and dominate these institutions for parochial and partisan gain.
These institutions have thus become pliant tools for the furtherance of the political ends of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and President Akufo-Addo.
One such institution is the Electoral Commission, which instead of making it easy for our citizens to take part in elections, rather takes delight in making it difficult.
They appear determined to ensure the disenfranchisement of sections of our population at all costs through a misguided insistence on the use of the Ghana card as the only source of identification for a voter card.
How do you do this, knowing that the Ghana Card is not available to everyone who should have one?
The Ghana Card is a relatively new feature of our national life and has its merits in the scheme of things.
At the moment, it is being brandished more as a political tool around which all manner of schemes is being fashioned towards elections.
There is the need to allow sufficient time for its full integration into our way of life before this kind of unhelpful exclusion of all other legitimately acquired, credible and time-tested forms of identification is implemented.
The National Identification Authority cannot claim to have covered every Ghanaian who should be registered or distributed all the cards printed to those who have been captured in their system.
They have failed to distribute hundreds of thousands of cards to people who have registered.
Until full and total coverage is achieved in the roll out of the Ghana Card, room must be made for those who are yet to be served, to exercise their democratic rights of voting.
They cannot be excluded from the voter register due to no fault of theirs.
This should be clear and quite easy to appreciate.
The haste on the part of the Electoral Commission to exclude all other means of identification is therefore clearly indecent and informed by an ulterior objective.
Last week, you in the Minority raised red flags over suspected attempts to compile a new register on the sole basis of the Ghana Card.
The Electoral Commission has been quick to deny that it harbours any such intentions.
Until the advent of the current leadership of the Commission, this denial would have marked the end of the matter.
The Commission in its present guise is known to have walked back on similar commitments in the recent past and so we in the NDC will maintain eternal vigilance to ensure that no such thing happens.
The process of continuous registration as canvassed by the Electoral Commission must necessarily include a system that enables all political parties and relevant stakeholders to possess the capacity to monitor same in real time, to avoid fraud and exploitation to the undue advantage of any party.
We in the NDC will insist on this.
This workshop is being held at a time of great suffering in our land due to unparalleled economic mismanagement by the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia government.
After a lengthy period of living in denial and plunging the economy into unprecedented doldrums, government finally decided a few weeks ago to request for an IMF programme.
They left the decision so late that substantial damage had been done to the economy by the time the call was finally made.
Inflation stands at a 19 year high of almost 30% for June and is almost set to rise.
Our deficit and revenue targets have so far been badly missed and we are most likely to post yet another double-digit deficit at the end of this financial year.
Our public debt has continued to mount.
Indications from the recent data collection exercise of the IMF team that visited Ghana last week are that government has up to GHS 40 billion in arrears and contingent liabilities in addition to the official public debt of about GHS 400 billion.
On the back of this, it is believed that our debt to GDP ratio runs into the 90% region.
Our ability to meet our debt service obligations remains tenuous with Ghana ranked as the country with the second highest likelihood of debt default in the world after El Salvador.
It is no secret that our foreign currency reserve position is extremely precarious.
This leaves us vulnerable unless there is an urgent injection of additional foreign exchange inflows.
The economic hardships persist and is set to remain for an extended period.
Amid this gloomy outlook, those responsible for the mess refuse to exhibit contrition and sobriety.
One of the key architects of the failed policies and mismanagement that have led to our economic downfall and suffering, found it necessary a couple of days ago, to put up a public display that verged on the ridiculous and comical.
In a government where honour and responsibility are respected, the Chair of the Economic Management Team that has thrust us into this crisis would have stepped down or dismissed.
In fact, the very idea that this government has requested for an IMF programme would have been sufficient reason for him to go in view of all the unenlightened propaganda he dabbled in against our IMF programme of 2015.
Rather, he has chosen to show a gaping deficit in leadership attributes by making untenable excuses and seeking to shift blame onto the government that left power almost six years ago and which had no role to play in the poor policy choices that have delivered these disastrous outcomes.
I have recently dispelled, based on facts and figures, the false attributions made for our economic problems, but it bears repeating that none of the tall list of excuses he made for where we are is acceptable.
All our neighbors were also affected by COVID-19 and exist in the same world in which the Russian- Ukrainian conflict is raging.
Almost none of them have anywhere near 30% inflation, or double-digit deficits or the kind of debt we have or a debt to GDP ratio around 90%.
None of them has a higher risk of debt default than we do.
The often-cited GHS 25 billion used in the so-called financial sector clean-up was self-inflicted and the result of reckless, politically motivated decision-making.
I would stress that the problems the banks and financial institutions had, could have been resolved with a third of that amount and we would have recovered same in good time if this government was minded doing the right thing.
The Akufo-Addo and Bawumia government took the unwise decision to collapse those financial institutions and is liable for any outcome.
The claims about excess capacity payment are no truer than the other three excuses.
The monies paid to the IPPs, which is deceptively couched as payment for “excess capacity” are in fact subsidies paid for power that has been generated and supplied to consumers.
5 We had done sufficient work before our exit in 2016, to address the financial bottlenecks in the energy sector.
One of the outcomes of this work is ESLA, which to date has given this government about GHS 23 billion.
This should be enough to substantially ease the financial problems of the sector.
The now legendary mismanagement of this government has however ensured, that despite collecting all this money, IPPs are currently owed over $ 800 million equivalent to about GHS 6 billion.
No amount of buck-passing can wipe away the irrefutable fact that our present economic situation stems from reckless election-related expenditure, mismanagement, ineptitude, and lack of proper leadership.
The highest form of irresponsibility is to shift responsibility to others and irresponsible leaders are simply not worth the mandate of the people.
We require serious and focused leadership to reverse the trajectory of the economic collapse we have been set on by this government.
I would also repeat my call on President Akufo-Addo to take control of the situation and inject fresh, reflective, and dynamic thinking into the management of the economy.
It is evident now more than ever, that those who superintended this disaster do not even realize the cause or gravity of the problem and cannot be relied upon to find any credible remedy.
We in the NDC continue to do our part by holding this government to account and offering viable alternative paths.
Where the NPP saw political advantage and an opportunity for political rent-seeking in 2015 when we went to the IMF, we see a nation in distress that requires urgent salvation in 2022 when we have gone back to the IMF.
That is why we have been measured and responsible in our commentary and posturing over the latest IMF decision by this government.
It is also the reason why we have insisted on effective scrutiny of the economic and financial decisions of this government at this time, especially in Parliament.
We do not believe that the existence of crisis permits even more reckless decision making.
All decisions and policy choices made at this critical juncture could offer relief or exacerbate our problems and make recovery extremely difficult.
We are in a massive hole, and we do not need further digging.