2024
SUPREME COURT
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Plaintiff, seeking to uphold constitutional values, challenged the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act 2016, particularly section 10(15), arguing it undermined parliamentary supervisory control as mandated by Article 181 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court determined that the Plaintiff's claims did not properly invoke the Court's jurisdiction. The Court dismissed the Plaintiff's reliefs, affirming that the jurisprudence regarding Article 181 refers to central government, not public corporations, and upheld the constitutionality of section 10(15) of Act 919.
DARKO ASARE JSC:
My Lords, the Plaintiff says that his motivation for bringing this case is to ensure that the foundational values of our Constitution namely; probity, accountability and transparency are not undermined by Parliament through the provisions of the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act 2016 (Act
919). He contends that under Act 919, Parliament appears to have waived its constitutional power under article 181 of supervisory control over all loans and international business or economic transactions entered into by the Government of Ghana as explained by the Supreme Court in a long line of cases, including, Attorney-General v Faroe Atlantic Co. Ltd. [2005-2006] SCGLR 271, Attorney General v Balkan Energy [2012] 2 SCGLR 998 . This is how the eminent Date Bah, JSC expressed in flowery language the value of article 181 in the case of Attorney General v Balkan Energy (supra) at page 1033 of the Report:-
“The sunlight of Parliamentary scrutiny of major transactions entered into by the Executive is likely to be a powerful spur to probity…..”
These important values of probity and accountability to our constitutional architecture are not lost on us as we proceed to address the issues raised for our consideration by the Plaintiff’s action.
Reliefs
The Plaintiff is a citizen of Ghana and a private legal practitioner by profession. On the 13th of December 2016 he filed the action herein against the Attorney General, the Defendant herein, claiming the following reliefs:-
i) A declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Article 181 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, Parliament lacks the power to whittle down the effect of the mandatory constitutional injunction that all loans (without any distinction) must be laid before Parliament for approval before they can come into force or become operational.
ii) A declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Article 181 of the Constitution, Section 10 sub-section 15 of the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act 2016 (Act 919) in so far as it purports to exclude or exempt loan agreements of certain financial values entered into by the state, for the purpose of exploitation, development and production of crude oil and natural gas, from parliamentary approval and scrutiny is contrary to Article 181 of the Constitution and therefore unconstitutional.
iii) A declaration that any loan agreement entered into by the State or any public entity without Parliamentary a