The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) is asking the Ghanaian electorate to reject the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the up-coming December elections for their active roles in nurturing and promoting the illicit multi-billion dollar judgment debt industry in Ghana.

The PPP believes there is enough evidence now in the public domain to confirm that both NDC and NPP administrations have deliberately used the judicial process of obtaining judgment debt, as a vehicle of fraud to commit financial crimes of unimaginable proportions against the state and the good people of Ghana, for which reason, officials involved should not only be arrested and prosecuted but the parties they belong to should be rejected and prevented from having the chance to continue with their bad economic governance practices.

PPP Parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency, William Dowokpor, made the call in an interview with the media in Accra on Thursday. He said emerging details from the multiple judgment debts scandal, is indicative of bad economic governance characterized by a lack of transparency and integrity in the creation and management of contracts on behalf of the nation by party big wigs and their accomplices in the public and private sectors of the economy.

He warned the state against setting up a Commission of Enquiry on the matter to avoid the situation where “adverse findings” made against individuals would be used as legal technicalities to avoid prosecution, insisting that the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) be charged to investigate the scandal and recommend those found to have done wrong for prosecution. “It is very clear that this collusion to defraud the state and the good people of Ghana has been going on for a long time and both NDC and NPP administrations have been aware and actively involved in nurturing it into a booming illicit industry” he said.

William Dowokpor said good economic governance remains a critical pre-condition for peace and development, warning that the blatant abuse of public office with impunity by the NDC and NPP if allowed to continue would not only retard development but affect the nation’s peace as well.

He called on the electorate to consider their votes in the December elections as seeds that would germinate and grow into mighty trees bearing fruits for all Ghanaians, if they are planted in the PPP’s political garden of Stewardship for transformational development, an attribute that is clearly lacking in the old politics of the NDC and NPP.

“We think it is our solemn duty to let the people of Ghana understand the full import of this judgment debt industry; that it begins with getting the mandate of the people to govern after winning elections, which is democratic but then, abusing that mandate by illegally terminating contracts, signing contracts that lack integrity on behalf of the state or facilitating payment of corruption tainted judgment debt with the motive of making personal gains should be prevented by the people through the selection of who gets the mandate to govern” he said.

William Dowokpor concluded that, the 2012 elections presents the Ghanaian electorate with the choice between Stewardship, which is championed by the PPP or Kleptocracy, represented by the administrations of the NDC and NPP; calling on the electorate to choose stewardship as the lasting solution to the illicit judgment debt industry and corruption in general.**