A 2021 report by the Centre for Social Justice has reviewed judgement debts payments made from public funds on behalf of the state from 2000 to 2019 and concluded that the phenomenon continues to persist.

The persistence of these judgement debts over the years, according to the report, is as a result of “negligence, blatant disregard for public procurement laws, and illegal abrogation of contracts by public officials in their line of duty.”

According to the Centre for Social Justice, these inefficiencies require immediate attention to save the public purse in future events.

“Addressing the recurring issue of judgment debts would require a combination of strategies geared towards improvement in the State’s efficiency in executing its business on behalf of the public,” it explained.

Due to a lack of a blueprint to efficiently deal with such inefficiencies, the CSJ made some recommendations based on standard practices to improve state efficiency in the execution of its business.

The recommendations include reforming key institutional arrangements in the execution of government business.

The CSJ recommended that government enforce strict compliance to the National Procurement Laws, “unauthorized deviations at all levels should carry hefty consequences for the responsible public official(s).”

It added that government needed to ensure that “qualified legal experts who understand the murky nature of contracting involving governments are engaged when committing to contractual obligations”

And, “Review, enhance, and enforce international best practices in Public Financial Management.”

The CSJ also recommended that an inter-party framework for managing contractual obligations of government during and after political transitions should be established.

“It is crucial that all stakeholders, regardless of political party affiliations, commit to minimizing contractual breaches resulting from political transitions. In particular, the framework must ensure that stakeholders act in the collective interest and not in their self-interests.”

The report called for the “maintenance of a government-wide database for all major contracts, and the Audit Service must review these contracts for evidence of sound legal advice prior to entering into the contract and the status of implementation of each contract as part of the entity audit process. Triggers on the database should allow stakeholders to manage the high-value contracts.”

It further added that, “a judgment debt management policy should be formulated with an inter-ministerial unit comprising the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice & Attorney General formed to oversee the effective management of judgment debts.

“The judgment debt management policy should provide guidelines including oversight approval for the abrogation of government contracts where such abrogation are thought to be in the supreme interest of the state.

"A documented cost-benefit analysis of such abrogation should be done prior to the final decision to terminate,” as well as many other recommendations contained in the CSJ’s 2021 report on Ghana’s ballooning judgement debt.