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The Judgment Debt Commission has initiated a forensic audit into the sale of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation’s drill ship in 2001.
The development is a determined move by the Commission, presided over by Appeal court judge, Justice Yaw Appau to unravel the mystery surrounding the transaction.
The Commission has engaged the services of an independent auditing firm to investigate how 24 million dollars accrued from the sale of the drill ship was expended.
Former Deputy Energy Minister, K. T. Hammond claimed that the amount was used to settle judgment debt owed French Bank, Société Générale, and the rest paid to government accounts.
But the GNPC, Bank of Ghana, Ministries of Energy and Finance, as well as the French Bank, all say they could not trace documentation to back the claim.
Lawyer for the Commission, Kofi Dometi Sorkpor told Joy Newsthat the move was within their mandate.
“We are doing a forensic audit and at the end of the day, we will get to the root of this matter surrounding the sale of the ship”, counsel for the commission noted.
He said the auditors are expected to consider other documents which are not available to the Commission in order to ensure that indepth analyses were done.
Hopefully, he said, the forensic auditing will get a “very detailed account” and a “clearer picture” of the sale of the ship “very soon”.
The Jugement Debt Commission had served notice on certain high-profile personalities including Tsatsu Tsikata, a former Chief Executive Office of GNPC, to assist the Commission to arrive at its conclusion on the issue sale of the ship.,
Mr. Dometi Sorkpor further stated that those personalities would be invited when other things were made “clear” to the Commission.
Source: Joy Business
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