The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, on Monday told the House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary that the Federal Government paid $6m to a foreign oil firm for a non-existent court judgment.
The sum, said Aondoakaa, was part of the $18m judgment purportedly awarded against the government by a United States court in favour of Marsh Oil.
He added that the balance of $12m was about to be made to the company when it was discovered that a copy of the judgment could not be produced.
The AGF said, �When I was approached to approve the payment of the balance, I became curious and demanded for a copy of the judgment. And strangely, it has not been given till today(Monday).��
But Aondoakaa neither named the government agency that was sued by the oil comapany nor the year the judgment was obtained.
The AGF and the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola, had traded blame over the non-payment of more than N16bn judgment debts standing against the government and its agencies.
Aondoakaa claimed that many ministries, departments and agencies failed to draw the attention of his office to judgments to enable him to capture the debts in the budget of the Ministry of Justice.
But Babalola, who also appeared before the committee, said that the AGF should take responsibility for the failure of the ministries to furnish his office with such vital information.
The committee had summoned them to explain why provisions were not made for the payment of the debts in the 2008 budget.
Before the hearing on Monday, information at the disposal of the committee was that subsisting judgment debts totaled over N8bn for local debts. There were other debts of $12m and �2m.
However, giving details on the actual debt profile, Aondoakaa told the committee that non-contestable debts in local currency stood at about N16.6bn while those in foreign denominations were $12m and �2m respectively.
The minister, who described the Ministry of Defence as the highest debt-owing ministry, disclosed that in the case of military invasion of Zaki-Biam, Benue State in 2001, there was a judgment debt of N42bn awarded in favour of the victims.
This amount, he said, excluded another sum of over N485m awarded in a separate case against the same ministry.
Aondoakaa explained that debts in the later category were yet to be verified.
He told the committee that under the law, the AGF was the authorised official to capture the debts in the budget.
But he said his experience since he assumed office showed that most ministries did not bother to notify his office whenever there was a judgment against them.
He said, �The main problem was the failure of the ministries to draw our attention to the debts.
�They award contracts and fail to pay; yet, if the contractors go to court and get a judgment against them, we are not told.�
Aondoakaa said that the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2007 withdrew over N200m from the account of the Ministry of Sports to settle an outstanding debt against the ministry without the knowledge of his office.
According to him, due to the lack of concern shown by affected ministries, courts had resorted to freezing any money in their accounts with commercial banks, including staff salaries, in a bid to settle their debts.
But Babalola informed the committee that the failure of the ministries to furnish the AGF�s office with information was an indication that legal officers posted to the ministries were not doing their job.
He said, �Increasing judgment debts is a complete failure of the Ministry of Justice. We need to put in place structures to ensure that this kind of situation does not arise.
�The position of the ministry is that all such verifiable debts must be paid.�
He observed that it was the responsibility of the legal officers in the Ministry of Justice to collate information on pending judgments so that �contingency funds� could be earmarked for them.
The minister also criticised the Ministry of Justice for its failure to differentiate between �legal fees� and judgment debts in its budget.
�What we notice is that the executive usually lumps these two together. The Ministry of Finance makes provision for what has been brought before it,� he added.
Babalola said that out of over N4bn allocated to the AGF�s office in 2007, N3bn was for legal fees. He, however, clarified that only N1bn had been released.
The committee said that it would carry out a thorough investigation into why there was improper coordination between the ministries and the AGF�s office.
It also said it would liaise with the Ministry of Finance to make provisions for the debts in the 2008 budget.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Henry Dickson Seriake, said members suspected that some of the judgments might have been �fraudulently� obtained.
He said, �We shall investigate into how all these debts came about; which officer handled what particular case.
�We hope that the AGF will send his legal officers down in the course of the hearing; we advise that the AGF and the minister of finance come up with the details of the debts so that funds can be earmarked for them.�