Our Judiciary Can't Be Right To Allow GNPC To Borrow $700M Without Parliamentary Scrutiny - IMANI

Chief Executive Officer of IMANI Ghana, Mr. Franklin Cudjoe has expressed disappointment in the ruling by the Commercial Court against the injunction application that sought to restrain the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) from accessing a $700 million loan facility. The Commercial Court in Accra on Wednesday dismissed an injunction application filed by three NPP MPs seeking an order to restrain the GNPC from contracting a loan of $700 million from any financial institution within or outside Ghana. Dismissing the injunction application, the court presided over by Justice A Bartels Cudjoe said the applicants failed to establish a prima facie case; thus, two other applications filed by the applicants would be heard by the court. The trio were praying the court to declare that the GNPC contracting, procuring, securing or otherwise acquiring or drawing down on the loan facility or any other loan without prior approval from parliament was null and void. Reacting to the Commercial Court ruling on his social media page, Mr. Franklin Cudjoe wrote on his Facebook Wall that the Judiciary is undermining good natural resource governance as it cannot be right to allow a state entity to borrow $700 million without Parliamentary scrutiny. To him, the court should be minded that the country has not economically managed the money from the oil receipts well as this should have been considered in the ruling; adding that Ghana was better off without oil in the country. Read The Full Message On His Facebook Wall Below: Some parts of our Judiciary it seems is undermining good natural resource governance. It cannot be right to allow a state entity to borrow $700m without parliamentary scrutiny. This is not right! The courts should be minded that economical we have not managed the money from our oil receipts well, not at all and that should have been considered! But alas, as I always have said there must be economic education within the judiciary! We were actually better off without oil in this country. Without oil we grew the economy to 7% GDP under the previous NPP government. With oil we grew at 14% in 2011 under the NDC! Then afterwards, it has been all misery with plenty oil money, such that we will be growing below 5% projected this year!!