If there is anything else hindering Ghana’s development aside from corruption and misappropriation, it should be judgment debts.
While it’s common to hear about the millions of Ghana cedis in state funds reported as misappropriated or stolen in audit reports, the staggering losses the country faces through judgment debts often go unnoticed.
These judgment debts are awarded against the country because of the actions and inactions of government functionaries, including the reckless cancellation of Ghana’s contractual obligations. The manner in which some of the contracts that cause the judgement debts are cancelled and the persons involved in the arbitrations often lead to insinuations of proponents of the government colluding with private individuals to “create, loot, and share” the nation’s scarce resources.
Details of an RTI document and figures from recent arbitrations show that Ghana has lost over GH¢2.5 billion to judgment debts to over 60 individuals and organisations because functionaries of the government wrongly cancelled a contract. Imagine what this amount of money can do for the country.
The RTI document, which was shared by graphic.com.gh, shows that between 2017 and 2019, the government paid over GH¢278 million in judgment debts; and between 2020 and 2022, over GH¢22 million. These figures exclude the judgment debts awarded against Ghana from 2023 to 2024.
Below is a breakdown of the judgment debts awarded against the government of Ghana from 2017 to date:
2017:
The RTI document indicated that in 2017 alone the government paid over GH¢111 million in judgement debts. Below is a breakdown of the payment made in 2017:
2018:
In 2018, the government paid more than GH¢153 million in judgement debts.
2019:
The government paid more than GH¢13 million in judgement debts in 2019 to 10 individuals and entities:
2020:
In 2020, the government of Ghana paid nearly GH¢19 million in judgement debts to 15 entities:
2021:
For 2021, the government paid approximately GH¢358 thousand to two entities as judgement debt:
2022:
For 2022, over GH¢2.8 million in judgement debts was paid to two entities:
2023:
The $134 million Trafigura’s Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) judgment debt was awarded against Ghana in 2023 by a UK court and reaffirmed by a US court in 2024.
The $134 million using the current exchange rate translates to over GH¢2 billion.
2024:
In 2024, two judgment debts have been awarded against the government: the GH¢95 million judgement debt and the GH¢94 million Tobinco judgement debt which was slapped on the FDA.
These two debts sum up to about GH¢189 million.
