The hope of the Judgement Debts Commission to retrieve documents on the sale of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation’s drill ship has been dashed following the inability of the Attorney- General’s Department to produce any business transaction documents the Commission requested for.

Mrs. Dorothy Afriyie Ansah, Chief State Attorney, on Tuesday told the Commission that they could not trace any documents on their files.

“My Lord, there are no documents to that effect, but we are making frantic efforts to see if we can get any,” she told Justice Yaw Apau, the Sole Commissioner..

But the immediate past Chief Executive Officer of GNPC, Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye, had earlier informed the Sole Commissioner that all the original documents pertaining to the business transaction were in the custody of the AG’s Department.

The Discoverer 511, a property of the GNPC was sold at $24 million in 2001 under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration to defray a judgment debt of SI9.5 million to Societe Generale, as being ordered by a High Court in London.

Justice Apau said that the conundrum (puzzle) could be solved by the key players namely; Messrs. Tsatsu Tsikata, former GNPC Chief Executive, Albet Kan. Dapaah, former Energy Minister and Kwabena Tahir Hammond former Deputy Energy Minister who would soon be subpoenaed by the Commission.

“It seems we are losing trace of all documents, but hope is not lost, since the key players, Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, Albert Kan Dapaah and K.T. Hammond will soon be invited by the Commission,” he stated.

The Sole Commissioner has always been complaining of poor record keeping in the country especially, where documents of national importance could not be traced to assist the Commission in its investigations into the payment of colossal, sums of money as judgment debts to persons and entities.

Ever since the issue of the drill ship came to the limelight, witnesses who had appeared before the Commission to testify, could not produce letters or documents relating to the dealings between GNPC and the French Company, Societe Generale, which offered some financial commitment to the corporation to undertake oil exploration at the Tano oilfields.

Mr. Gilbert Hie, Managing Director of Societe Generale-Ghana, who was at the Commission_ on September 17, to give evidence could not produce documents on the premise that, they (documents) had been destroyed since French laws never permitted documents which were mere than 10 years to still be kept as records.

The Senior Manager of the State Enterprise Audit Corporation, former auditors of GNPC, Mr. Fredrick Boniface Senahia, who also appeared on Monday, maintained that the outfit had equally shredded working papers because they had outlived their usefulness.

The Commission’s last resort and only hope now rest on the evidence yet to be given by the three key players Messrs Tsatsu Tsikata, Kan Dapaah and KT Hammond.

Sitting was adjourned to next week October 14.