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The Supreme Court has ruled that the Auditor General lacked the legal authority to collect a surcharge from Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a waste management company.
In a unanimous decision on Thursday, the court held that the Auditor General’s powers to collect surcharges could not be extended to Zoomlion Ghana Limited, which had received a surcharge of ¢ 184 million from the Auditor General.
The case was presided over by Judge Jones Dotse.
The Auditor General issued a surcharge and disavowal against Zoomlion in 2018 for more than ¢ 184 million for a fumigation exercise contract he performed for the Ministry of Health.
But this exercise was paid for by the National Health Insurance Authority.
An audit by the Auditor General of the NHIA accounts revealed that Zoomlion had been paid between 2007 and 2018 a total amount of ¢ 184,901,650.00 without due process.
Auditor General Daniel Domelevo maintained that Zoomlion continued to receive payment for the fumigation exercise from the NHIA even though the contract between the NHIA and the Ministry of Health was a four-year contract that began in August 2009.
Zoomlion appealed the Auditor General’s decision in Accra High Court on December 5, 2018 and urged the court to quash the surcharge.
Judge Georgina Mensah-Datsa dismissed this appeal in January this year.
Zoomlion went ahead and appealed to the Court of Appeals which referred him to the Supreme Court for constitutional interpretation who this morning ruled that the Auditor General could not have charged Zoomlion a surcharge on this specific matter.
The detailed judgment containing the reasoning behind this decision, the court says, will be published soon.
