Investigator testifies in Selormey's case
Court dismisses applications of defence counsel
Accra (Greater Accra) 21 June 2001
Mr Jeff Edward Musoru, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) at the Police Headquarters, on Thursday told the Fast Track Court in Accra that on April 27, he was assigned the job of investigating the award of a contract for the Court Computerisation Project involving Victor Selormey, a former Deputy Minister of Finance.
ASP Musoru said his investigations showed that a total payment of 1,297,500 dollars was made to Leebda Corporation of Texas in US for the project even though no contract had been signed.
He said he arrived at that conclusion after contacting sources such as the Judicial Service, National Institutional Renewal Programme (NIRP) and the Ministries of Finance and Justice.
ASP Musoru, who is the sixth witness, was giving evidence for the prosecution in the Court Computerisation Project case in which Selormey is charged with conspiracy, defrauding by false pretences and wilfully causing financial loss of about 1.3 million dollars to the state.
Selormey has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is on a 1.5 billion-cedi bail with two surety.
The Fast Track Court is presided over by Justice Sam G. Baddoo, an Appeal Court Judge sitting as an additional High Court Judge.
Led in his evidence in chief by Mr Osafo Sampong, Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), witness said in the course of his investigations he found that no contract was signed, yet the accused person authorised payment to be made by ECOBANK (Ghana) Limited to Leebda Corporation.
ASP Musoru said his investigations revealed that the former Deputy Minister wrote two letters dated November 27, 1998 and February 12, 1999 authorising ECOBANK to transfer 432,500 US dollars and 865,000 US dollars respectively to Leebda Corporation in Texas, for the attention of Dr Frederick Owusu Boadu of Leebda.
The witness said there were no copies of the letters at the Accountant-General's Department and the Auditor General's Department although they were supposed to have copies of those letters.
The investigator also contended that the letters did not have file numbers. Witness said the money was paid from the Trade and Investment Programme (TIP) accounts and explained further that the USA provided 80 million dollars to the government of Ghana as a grant to be used in promoting non-traditional exports.
He said he found out that there was an Oversight Committee on the TIP, which was chaired by the former Deputy Minister and had Mr Dan Abodakpi, former Minister of Trade and Industry as a member.
According to the witness, the committee was to operate from 1992 to 1997. However, by the end of 1997, it was still operating and the money in the account was being used by the accused and the ex-Trade Minister "because they felt there was the need to use this money."
He said his investigations at the Ministry of Justice showed that it was not aware of the contract neither did it sign any with Leebda Corporation.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 21 June 2001
The Fast Track Court (FTC) trying six persons, including two former Cabinet Ministers, in the Quality Grain scandal on Thursday dismissed applications by two defence counsel objecting to the charges against all the accused persons.
The court presided over by Mr Justice Kwame Afreh, Appeal Court Judge but sitting as an additional High Court Judge, described the applications as "frivolous and without merit" and ordered that the case should proceed on Monday, July 2.
The accused persons are Ibrahim Adam and Kwame Peprah, former Ministers of Agriculture and Finance, respectively, in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.
The rest are Dr Samuel Dapaah, Dr George Yankey, Nana Ato Dzadzie and Kwesi Ahwoi, all senior public officers in the former government.
They have all pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and wilfully causing financial loss to the State. Each has been granted self-recognisance bail.
On June 11, Mr Kwaku Baah, counsel for Peprah argued that the NDC has filed a writ at the Supreme Court challenging the charges against the accused persons as being unconstitutional. He said the FTC must, therefore, stay proceedings until the determination of the matter.
Nana Adjei Ampofo counsel for Nana Dzadzie objected to the conspiracy charge against his client on the grounds that the facts of the case by the Attorney-General (AG) did not indicate any conspiracy act.
Giving reasons for the ruling, Mr Justice Afreh said the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which filed the writ, was not charged before the FTC and none of the accused persons had objected to the charges.
He said the argument that the accused persons performed their duties according to directives by the Executive did not hold and should not be a ground for the court to grant the application.
Mr Justice Afreh quoted legal authorities to buttress his ruling that a lower court was not obliged to refer a matter to a higher court if, in its view, an objection raised against a matter before it had no merit.
He said the FTC agreed with Mr Baah that it had to use its discretion in granting the application considering the circumstances under which the accused persons performed their duties.
Mr Justice Afreh, however, said in doing so, the court must be guided by the rule of law and exercise its discretion not on compassion or special circumstances.
On the conspiracy charge, the court said it was premature for counsel to raise an objection since the prosecution had not closed its case.
He advised counsel to renew the application at the end of the prosecution's case if no evidence had been tendered against his client.
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