Bright Simons: What Ghana’s latest “judgment debt” says about accountability
Published:
3 months ago
Source:
3News
Bright Simons
On 26th January 2021, an arbitration panel sitting in London, ruled against Ghana in a dispute between the country and a subsidiary of Swiss energy trading giant, Trafigura, about an aborted 107 MW power plant. Since the arbitration outcome itself was not appealable, the only way around it was to ask a court to set it aside on the basis that the arbitral panel acted beyond the scope of their authority as conferred by the arbitration clause in the subsisting contract/agreement. The government failed to do this within the prescribed time. However, after the deadline had passed, it approached the High Court in London for special leave to bring a case to annul the arbitral decision on two grounds. Despite having been granted a short extension, it failed to instruct its lawyers on time and to comply with court orders leading to the dismissal of its case.