Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, a legal luminary and an accounting Professor who is popularly known as Prof. Kwaku Azar speaking on the recent judgment debt slapped on Ghana insists that Professor Frimpong Boateng led Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) must be made to pay the $15 million judgment debt.
According to Prof. Kwaku Azar, illegal actions of the committee which comprised of the former Minister Prof. Boateng and Bissue cannot make the state liable and therefore, they must be made to suffer the consequences of their actions.
“The members of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), not taxpayers, should be responsible for the $15 million judgment debt.”
He further reiterated that tax payers cannot be held liable for illegal acts of public servants that substantially depart from their lawful official remit.
“The IMCIM members acted ultra vires when it confiscated and unlawfully sold equipment belonging to Heritage Imperial Limited and subsequently directed its boys to do galamsey on the company’s site.”
Prof. Kwaku Azar
In addition, he noted that these activities “represent substantial deviation from its official jurisdiction and members should not be allowed to profit from their activities while saddling the tax payer with debt”
Background of the Judgment Debt
A Kumasi High Court awarded a judgment debt of $15.3 million against the government of Ghana following unlawful seizure of excavators by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining.
Meanwhile, in court, lawyers for the mining firm argued that they procured a prospecting mining licence from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources on October 25, 2018.
The plaintiffs say they stuck to this commitment until the raid was conducted on their concession by the task force where their excavators and other equipment were confiscated in December that same year.
In its ruling on May 18, 2021, the court deemed the action on the site against Heritage Imperial Mining Company as unlawful, adding that no evidence had been advanced by the task force to back their claims of illegality on the company’s part. It further concluded that the taskforce also permitted other entities to invade the concession and mine from the plaintiff’s concession.
The court, presided by Justice Samuel Obeng Diawuo, also held that the move by the task force on the said day flies in the face of the mandate within which they were to operate in the fight against illegal mining in the country.
This adds to the growing list of judgement debts facing Ghana as the recent cancellation of some power agreements by the government of Ghana, has caused the nation millions of dollars.
This is resulting from a United Kingdom Court has awarding a US $164 million judgment debt against Ghana for wrongfully terminating the contract of an independent power producer, Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) Limited .
However, it has ordered the government to pay the said amount to the Heritage Imperial Limited. The firm was prospecting for gold in the Apampema Forest Reserve in the Amansie District of the Ashanti region when the Ministerial Taskforce raided the site of the company and seized their equipment claiming they were engaging in activities outside their mandate. READ ALSO: Central Bank gold purchase programme laudable but ‘rushed’- Mr Alfred Baku
