The New Patriotic Party is upset that the Judgment Debt Commission accused its flagbearer of causing financial loss to the state without giving him the benefit of a hearing.

The party has therefore flatly rejected findings of the Justice Yaw Apau commission that Nana Akufo-Addo as Attorney-General under the Kufuor administration caused financial loss to the state by miserably failing to represent the state in a suit at an international court.

The matter involved the sale of a drillship owned by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation in the early 2000s to defray a judgment to Societe Generale.

The Judgment Debt Commission's claim is that when the GNPC was sued in a London Court, the then Attorney-General, Nana Akufo-Addo failed to represent the Corporation.

"On the appointed date for the determination of the Corporation’s application, the Attorney-General who had taken over the conduct of the case from Bindman and Partners, failed to attend court. He again failed to draw the court’s attention to the fact that GNPC was on a settlement table with SG, notwithstanding the pendency of the matter before the court. In sum, the Attorney-General failed to make any appearance at all in the London High Court after he had written to GNPC’s external solicitors dispensing with their services as lawyers for GNPC in the case," the Commission chaired by a Court of Appeal judge, Justice Apau, who has been appointed to the Supreme Court by President John Mahama, stated.

Barely 24 hours after the media started serialising the contents of the leaked report, the Communications Director of the NPP, Nana Akomea, issued a statement saying, "It is sad that the Commission has reportedly made findings against Nana Akufo-Addo without the courtesy of an opportunity for him to be heard during the year-long sitting of the Commission, even though Nana Akufo-Addo indicated his readiness to appear before the Commission."

The statement said the NPP flagbearer for the 2016 presidential election will respond fully to the allegations "when an official copy of the report of the Commission is made available. We, however, want to state on authority that at no point was any financial loss to the state occasioned by Nana Akufo-Addo’s actions in the matter. The Kufuor government should rather be commended for rescuing the GNPC sinking ship under the NDC and setting it back on its true course.”‹”‹"