If there is any other thing 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 that are reported as misappropriated or stolen in audit reports, it seems that 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 GHS2.5 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 GHS278 million in judgment debts; and between 2020 and 2022, over GHS22 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:
Source: Ghana Web
