<<Print>>

A Chief State Attorney representing the Attorney-General at the Judgement Debt Commission yesterday requested further investigations into the disbursement of compensation to some communities affected by the construction of the Akosombo Dam. The communities are Pai, Apaaso, Ahamandi, Makango and Kete Krachi which are in the catchment area of the Volta River basin. Mrs Dorothy Afriyie Ansah, who was in the company of another Chief State Attorney, Mrs Stella Badu, made the request following a report that had been submitted by a team put together by the commission to investigate how the disbursement was done. Mrs Ansah specifically asked that other agencies connected to the said disbursement be brought on board to help with further investigations and dockets built on officers named in the report for possible prosecution. �The A-G�s Office is of the view that the report be forwarded to other agencies under the ministry for further investigations and for [the] police to build dockets in respect of public officers who have been named in the said report,� she told the commission. However, although she said the comments had already been forwarded to the commission in a letter dated July 11, which her records showed had been dispatched on July 16, the commission said it had not as yet received any report in that regard and so asked for a copy to be made, which was tendered in as exhibit �A�. Stool lands and compensation In a related issue, the Sole Commissioner, Mr Justice Yaw Apau, said stool lands money was being paid to chiefs instead because of an advice from the A-G�s Department. Mrs Ansah, however, said he did not agree with that arrangement because the decision to pay compensation to the Administrator of Stool Lands was a constitutional provision. But Mr Justice Apau said the letter from the A-G�s Department stated that compensation money for lands acquired by the state was re-instatement and so must not go to stool lands but chiefs personally. �In the wake of this letter from the A-G, it is better for the A-G to write back to the Land Valuation Division to cancel that previous letter,� he recommended. Untraceable files Earlier, Mrs Ansah had stated that the file on a case titled, �Kwesi Agyei and two others against Attorney-General,� had still not been located and, therefore, asked for an adjournment to August 4, 2014, which was granted. Another case on compensation payment by the Volta River Authority (VRA) for the resettlement of Wusuta and farmlands involving 11 individual beneficiaries was also adjourned because the file could not be traced. In respect of that, Mr Justice Apau said if the file was not located, the docket would be closed. Representing the Chief Director at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in the matter of compensation claims for the Volta River flooded area in respect of the five communities mentioned earlier, Mrs Sarah Fafa Kpodo, a Senior State Attorney, asked for an adjournment to July 29, 2014, as the ministry was still searching for some documents in respect of the payments.