Government has admitted that its decision to cancel the contract it signed with Bankswitch Ghana in 2007 was inappropriate and a failure on its part.
The Minister of Information and Media Relations, Mahama Ayariga on the Citi Breakfast Show also acknowledged that government also faulted by failing to go through the right procedures to terminate the contract.
“If there is any real fault, perhaps it comes from deciding to not accept particular arrangement and not taking the right processes to terminate what clearly would have been an agreement with the government of Ghana even if it was a pilot programme.
At the time, we insisted and continued with the contract, we ought to have gone through the processes for terminating this particular agreement so in that aspect, I think of course some failure on our part took place,” he explained.
Permanent Court of Arbitration, in The Hague awarded damages amounting to GH¢197,491,874.00 to Bankswitch Ghana in a case it filed.
The damages were given as a result of the cancellation of a contract Bankswitch signed with the government of Ghana in 2007.
Over the past few years, government has been burdened with the payment of judgement debts mainly due to the unlawful termination of contracts and failure to follow due processes.
But Mr. Ayariga quickly added that government experienced some difficulties with operators and authorities which hindered it from going through the appropriate procedure.
Meanwhile, a Presidential Staffer, Dr. Clement Apaak also on the Citi Breakfast Show disclosed that he has asked his lawyers “to file the case to contest the claims being made by Bank Switch that the state of Ghana should pay about 400 million.”
He however asserted that the International Court of Arbitration’s ruling on the case should not impact negatively on the laws of Ghana.
“The international court of arbitration may have done what they have done, they have done so devoid of due consideration of Ghanaian law and therefore, I don’t think the decision that they have made should impact negatively on the laws of our country and I still expect the Supreme Court of Ghana to uphold the constitution of Ghana as it pertains to the need for parliamentary approval,” he explained.
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana