CID Forwards Criminal Complaint Against AG Godfred Dame To CID Forensics

-Over dubious US$170 million Judgment Debt.

The Director-General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has announced that it has forwarded a criminal complaint against Attorney General Godfred Dame in his alleged complicity in the US$ 170 million judgment debt slapped on Ghana recently.

“We acknowledge receipt of your letter under reference. Your complaint has been referred to the Financial Forensic Unit of the CID Headquarters for investigation…,” Chief Superintendent Adamu Seidu wrote in a July 8, 2021 letter addressed to 

The letter is in response to a petition filed late June 2021 by governance group Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) which tasked the CID to investigate Attorney General Godfred Dame and two others over the recent $170m judgement debt imposed on the state.

ASEPA believes the judgment debt was deliberately caused by the Attorney General and that some faceless individuals may have benefitted from it.

The London-based United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Tribunal recently slapped the hefty judgment on Ghana in favour of Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) after Godfred Dame and his high-profile legal team had deliberately slept on their job.

The Akufo Addo administration had in 2018 questionably abrogated a power contract awarded to GPGC in 2015 by the John Dramani Mahama administration.

The Akufo Addo administration claimed GCGP had not met its side of the contract, however, the Mahama administration had initiated an abrogation and arbitration process that would have only secured GCGP US$ 18 million in damages for the halted contract.

However, London-based law firm Omni Strategy, owned by Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair had reportedly advised the Ghanaian government to opt for an international abrogation.

Meanwhile, even though Omnia Strategy was the one that advised the Akufo Addo to head for international arbitration and was appointed as one of the government’s legal representatives, Omnia in collusion with Godfred Yeboah Dame practically abandoned the case at the UNCITRAL, reaffirming suspicions that all along, they were not exactly committed to fighting for a better deal for Ghana at the arbitration court. 

Consequently, on June 8, 2021, UNCITRAL awarded US$170 million in damages to Duncan’s GPGC.

Details from the proceedings indicate that after protracted foot-dragging, the court had granted the Ghanaian side a 28-day window to finalise their argument, however, Mrs. Blair’s law firm appeared at the UNCITRAL on Day 25 of the 28-day window and asked for an extension of 56 days. The court granted part of the days asked and set March 8, 2021, as the new deadline in what the court considered enough concession for the Ghanaian side.

However, on the deadline, the Attorney-General of Ghana and his expensive team of international lawyers refused to show up. They rather showed up on April Fool’s Day, citing COVID-19 as their excuse for failing to meet the deadline. 

The judge in the case did not find this amusing and shut the door on their faces, describing their delay tactics as “significant and substantial” and that their excuse for failing to meet the deadline was “unreasonable and intrinsically weak”.

In pronouncing its verdict, the UNCITRA Tribunal slammed the impressive team of lawyers of the government of Ghana saying it had no sympathies for them in losing the case, and that the excuses proffered by AG Dame and his team were unreasonable and “intrinsically weak.”

The presiding judge, Justice Butcher said the Akufo Addo government’s delay was “significant and substantial”.

Critics are pointing out that the entire genesis of the Akufo Addo administration’s dubious abrogation of the GCPC contract was an orchestration to enrich a small circle of people associated with the President.