Kweku Azar Says AG, Foreign Law Firms Should Be Hold Responsible Over The $170m Judgment Debt

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A US-based Ghanaian legal counselor, Stephen Kwaku Asare, has required the Attorney General (AG) and the two unfamiliar law offices – Omnia Strategy and Volterra Fietta – to be considered answerable for Ghana’s inability to challenge the $170 million judgment obligation granted against the country.

“We have an Attorney-General Department. We have employed and paid two unfamiliar law offices, Omnia Strategy and Volterra Fietta. However, we nodded off and didn’t exploit the 28-day window managed the cost of us to challenge the mediation board’s choice that we should pay $170M to GPCG for ending an agreement.

“Omnia showed up in court on Day 25 to request an augmentation of 56 days. The court was thoughtful to concede the expansion however not for the full 56 days and set March 8, 2021, as the new cutoff time. The public authority then, at that point discovered better activities just to appear with a documenting on April Fool’s day, this time addressed by Volterra Fietta, with the pardon that it had been deferred by COVID and general races.

“The appointed authority shut the entryway portraying the postponement as “huge and generous” and the reasons as “absurd and inherently frail.” What is dis? I simply fail to see why we do these things to ourselves. Saving the purposes behind the end, which require a different request, the Attorney General and the unfamiliar law offices ought to be considered responsible for this reprehensible defer that has possibly cost us the chance to offer the intervention choice. #SALL is the cardinal sin of the eighth Parliament.”

His remarks come after the Commercial Court in London dismissed a late allure from Ghana against a judgment obligation grant of US$134 million for power worker for hire, The Ghana Power Generation Company (GCGP).

As indicated by the London Court, the public authority of Ghana neglected to apply and save the January 26, 2021 choice of the London-put together United Nations Commission with respect to International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Tribunal.

Mr Justice Butcher, in a decision on Wednesday, June 8, wouldn’t concede the public authority of Ghana an expansion to apply to save the honor – adding that the state’s reason for testing it were “characteristically frail”.

The public authority through its legal counselor Godfred Dame had endeavored to take cover behind the 2020 general political race and the COVID-19 pandemic as reasons for the postponement, yet their reasons were excused by the London court.

GPGC was addressed under the steady gaze of the court by Charles Kimmins QC and Mark Tushingham, where Ghana was said to have been past the point where it is possible to challenge the ruling against it.

Ghana had utilized Khawar Qureshi QC of Serle Court and Volterra Fietta, having at first held Omnia Strategy. In the discretion, GPGC, utilized Three Crowns and Ghanaian firm, Kimathi, and Partners, alongside harm specialists from FTI Consulting.

Ghana additionally had portrayal from the principal legal officer’s office and Amofa and Partners in Accra.

The three-part discretion council led by John Beechey, a previous President of the International Criminal Court of Arbitration, and co-led by Prof Albert Fiadjoe, a Ghanaian scholastic, agreed with the force maker and granted nearly US$170 million, including interest.

Out of the aggregate, U$134.35 million addresses the early end installment guarantee, which itself is comprised of US $69.36 million as a contractually allowable charge, US$58.49 million for activation costs, US$6.46 million as deactivation cost, and US$32,448 as safeguarding and support cost.

The court likewise granted US$614,353.86 against the country as the expense of the council, and expenses of US$3 million against Ghana, being the legitimate charges consumed by the GPGC during the discretion.

Significant features of the court’s choice incorporated the way that the Ahenkora Committee which suggested the end of the agreement didn’t have adequate ground in reaching the resolution that the GPGC was qualified for just $US18 million in contractually allowable charges.

The council, in excusing Ghana’s case, dove into the reason for ending the agreement, expressing that the proof before it demonstrated that “GPGC had a structured grant for the Blue Ocean Site gave by the Kpone-Katamanso District Assembly on August 15, 2017.”

“GoG [The government] has not had the option to show any rule or guideline, including the Energy Commission Act, which tends to the necessity for any such extra development license,” the Tribunal dominated.

“Based on the record as it presently stands, it is clear that even as Dr. Ahenkorah [Energy Commission Executive Secretary at the time] was setting up additional obstacles over which he required GPGC to bounce in the quest for its temporary age permit in November 2017, the Minister of Energy was going to look for the endorsement of the Ghanaian Parliament of a choice to end the EPA alongside various other PPAs, in light of the Report of the PPA Committee led by Dr. Ahenkorah,” it said.

Under British law, the public authority had 28 days to challenge the council’s choice. Notwithstanding, it rested distinctly to show up in court three days to the expiry of the cutoff time to request an augmentation.

Omnia Strategy, a British law office, presented the defense for augmentation and requested 56 days—double the permitted beauty period.

Be that as it may, the court set March 8, 2021, for the Government to document the cycles to challenge the Tribunal’s choice in January. Yet, once more, the public authority took a long rest until April 1, 2021, preceding documenting. This time, another British law office, Volterra Fietta, had directions from the public authority to start the interaction.

The law office, which labeled itself as the lone committed public global law office on the planet, clarified that the new Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, had just been confirmed on March 5, and the firm has gotten the order to address Ghana 10 days after the fact.

Be that as it may, administering the matter on June 8, 2021, the court had no feelings. It said the reasons were nonsensical and “characteristically frail.”

The managing judge, Justice Butcher didn’t keep down.

The adjudicator said the public authority’s deferral was “huge and considerable” as it’s anything but a subsequent expansion had come 38 days after the legal cutoff time and 27 days after the primary augmentation terminated, the Global Arbitration Review (GAR) detailed.

He noticed that the enormous amount of cash associated with the assertion was insufficient justification for the appeal to take as long as it did.

“The way that the Attorney General had not been sworn until March 5 didn’t mean the public authority couldn’t act meanwhile, the adjudicator said.

The International Court of Arbitration in January 2021 granted an expense of $134 million and an interest of $30 million against the Government of Ghana over the scratch-off of an Emergency Power Agreement with GCGP restricted.

The Contract was dropped under the previous Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko as a feature of a few other energy contracts dropped by the NPP on the premise that the nation didn’t require those force arrangements.

The decision by the International Court of Arbitration requested the public authority to Ghana to pay to “GPGC the full worth of the Early Termination Payment, along with Mobilization, Demobilization and conservation and upkeep costs in the measure of US$ 134,348,661, together likewise with premium subsequently from 12 November 2018 until the date of installment, accumulating every day and accumulated month to month, at the pace of LIBOR for half year US dollar stores in addition to six for each cent(6%).”

The Government of Ghana was additionally to pay GPGC a measure of “US$ 309,877.74 in regard of the Costs of the Arbitration, along with US$ 3,000,000 in regard of GPGC’s lawful portrayal and the charges and costs of its master observer, along with premium on the total measure of US$ 3,309,877.74 at the pace of LIBOR for three-month US dollar stores, accumulated quarterly.”