Godfred Yeboah Dame is Ghana’s Attorney General and Minister for Justice
• Dr Kofi Abotsi has explained how an Attorney General can be held liable for negligence
• He said an AG who fails to exercise skill and diligence can be held responsible for causing a loss to the state
• There have been growing calls against the A-G for ‘sleeping’ on the job amid the GPGC judgement debt case
An Attorney General can be held responsible for causing financial loss to the state if evidence proves he was negligent in performing his duties to the state, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Dr. Ernest Kofi Abotsi has asserted.
Making his submission on JoyNews’ Newsfile on the current brouhaha over a US$170 million judgement incurred on Ghana over the termination of the Ghana Power Generation Company contract, Dr Abosti explained, “An Attorney-General can advise, he can give the best of advice that can go wrong, that doesn’t make him liable. He’s only liable if he fails to exercise skill and diligence and therefore, he acts in a manner that we find below his power as an Attorney General in this circumstance.”
He continued, “For instance, if there is a key law he was to refer to in his assessment and advice, and he did not refer to that law, he did not even research it and basically just advised without any proper reflection of what he’s supposed to do, then you can clearly establish a case of professional negligence.”
Meanwhile, a Commercial Court in London has ordered the Government of Ghana to pay a sum of US$170million in damages to the claimants; Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC).
The development comes after the Akufo-Addo government in 2018 terminated a contract that existed between the two parties and subsequently failed to file its challenge on the award worth over US$134 million in favour of a power provider.