A-G, SFO to face court over Ndoum's SEC issue

Accra, Aug. 19, GNA - Mr. Kwame Asa-Ofori, a member of the Convention People's Party (CPP), has filed a suit in an Accra Fast Track High Court against the Attorney-General and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) seeking an order to compel them to take all necessary steps to immediately initiate the prosecution of alleged criminal offences against Dr. Paa Kwesi Ndoum, CPP flag bearer, and other persons implicated in an SFO report on the State Enterprises Commission (SEC).

In his statement of claim contained in the writ of summons dated August 15, 2008, made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the plaintiff noted that the defendants were enjoined by law to either initiate prosecution or issue a public official statement conclusively clearing Dr Ndoum and other affected persons of all adverse allegations contained in the said SFO report.

The court has therefore ordered the defendants to enter their appearance within eight days of receiving the summons or in default risk judgement being given in their absence without further notice. An SFO report on its investigations of the activities of the SEC between 1995 and 1996 implicated Dr. Ndoum and some officials of the SEC.

The SFO report accused Dr Ndoum, in particular of having fraudulently obtained contracts from the SEC by holding himself out as a representative of Delloitte and Touche USA and at the same time purporting to be operating another Delloite and Touche Consultancy under which he had undertaken various contacts with SEC.

The writ noted that the SFO report also accused Dr Ndoum of having fraudulently received payments from SEC, siphoned and repatriated over one million US dollars to the USA in his favour and also manufactured letterheads to give the impression that he was a member of Delloitte and Touche.

The SFO report also cited Dr Ndoum for conflict of interest while he was consultant and at same time acted as Executive Director of the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Department of SEC. Dr Ndoum was also cited for illegal receipts of per diem payments from the SEC totalling US$41,261.

But Dr Ndoum has denied all the allegations against him. The plaintiff, however, insists that it is not up to Dr. Ndoum to exonerate himself of criminal charges outside the appropriate forum, which was the court of law.

He noted that failure or neglect of A-G and SFO to afford the CPP's flag bearer the opportunity of being absolved of the alleged criminal findings contained in the SFO report in a court of competent jurisdiction, constituted a violation of Article 17 and may likely constitute an infraction of Article 19 of the 1992 Constitution.

"The defendants are enjoined by law to initiate and conduct prosecutions of the alleged criminal offences arising from the aforesaid report against the affected persons within a reasonable timeframe, failing which they are obliged to issue a public statement officially exonerating the affected persons from the allegations contained in the report," the writ said.