Economy

Supreme Court to quash ruling on West Blue case?

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Legal battle over the implementation of a single window scheme at the port is not over yet, legal practitioner Alexander Afenyo-Markin has indicated.

An Accra High Court presided over by Justice Kenneth Okwabi on August 31 dismissed the application for an injunction on the scheme saying documents before him indicated that the contract had already been sealed.

But lawyer for the clearing agent who is taking the government on in court, Afenyo-Markin said he will file application at the Supreme Court to challenge the court’s decision.

But Afenyo-Markin told Joy Business he will be asking the Supreme Court to quash the latest decision.

“We are likely to file a process at the Supreme Court for a certiorari. We will not appeal this matter but rather a certiorari which would have almost the same effect,” he indicated.

He explained, “This is because the same court cannot say in one breath that the action was too early in the day, then after we file a repeat application, that same court will tell us that the action is too late in the day. Obviously there is a problem.”

Mr. Afenyo-Markin said the decision is “an error apparent on the face of the record”: that is to say that the error is so grave that an appeal cannot cure it, and that the apex court must intervene under its supervisory jurisdiction.

He stated that “from how the judge determined the second application, we have come to that conclusion that the decision was so grave an error that we should get same to the Supreme Court for same to be quashed.”

The Single Window scheme has already commenced at the port effective September 1, with I.T. solutions company West Blue assisting the Customs department of the Ghana Revenue Authority to implement it.

Asked what such an application at the apex court could achieve following the implementation of the scheme, lawyer Markin said “What is wrongful in law is wrongful in law so the issue of whether or not a contract had already been signed and/or a project has commenced does not suffice here. The court would look at the law and determine same in accordance with law.”

The same High Court on July 31 threw out the first application by the Tema-based clearing agent, Michael Kwaku Djan who cited a breach in the procurement laws with the contract awarded to West Blue.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.