Special Prosecutor, Auditor-General to retrieve £47m wrongfully paid to Waterville

The Supreme Court has directed Mr Martin Alamisi Amidu, Special Prosecutor, to collaborate with the Attorney General (AG), to retrieve the £47million wrongfully paid to Waterville Holdings Company.

This was after Mr Amidu, on Wednesday morning moved an application before the court seeking the court to enforce the its judgment in 2014 for Waterville to refund the money paid to it by the State.

He told the Court that he was in court representing the public interest to ensure that the judgement was enforced and that he had evidence that could help the state retrieve the money.

He said he could establish that it was possible for the people of Ghana to get the money back and that the AG was not doing enough to enforce the judgement.

According to Mr Amidu, the AG claimed it could not trace Waterville, but he had communicated to them that he had documents that could help in the retrieval of the money, and it would be suicidal to hand over such documents to the AG.

In his response, the Deputy Attorney General Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame refuted the claims of Mr Amidu, saying that he had personally visited Mr Amidu to have access to the documents but he had refused to give them to him.

He said the whole essence of the application was against the AG and that it should not be granted, since they have not relented in their efforts.

He said the application lacked merit, did not indicate any access to Waterville, and was unknown to any of the rules of procedure.

The Court presided over by Justice Paul Baffoe- Bonnie said the order Mr Amidu was seeking for was not different from the judgment of the court in 2014 which ordered the AG to go after Waterville to retrieve the monies paid him illegally.

He said the execution of the order itself was a process and the court cannot give another order in relation to the same thing.

“Perhaps if you had come here to ask the AG about the steps that have been taken for the execution of the judgement, it would have been okay. A judgment once pronounced has coercive effect and cannot be repeated.”

The Court said looking at Mr Amidu’s affidavit he seemed to be taking an antagonistic stand against the AG, as some of the content of his affidavit leave much to be desired.

“You want the money for Ghana and the AG is the one mandated to get the money for Ghana so you would better be serving the people of Ghana if you collaborate with them”.

The Court then gave both parties two weeks to collaborate to see how best to enforce the judgement for the money to be retrieved.

The case was then adjourned to November 6.

In June 2014 the Supreme Court ordered Waterville to refund the amount of £47million paid to it by the state, because the payment was unconstitutional made.

Source: GNA