‘Betty copied approval letters to Newman’

The Accra Financial High Court was on Monday told that the letters written by former Authority-General, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, justifying claims made by Alfred Agbesi Woyome, were copied to the former Chief of Staff, Martin Martey Newman.

“Every step she took, she informed Martey Newman as far as the records show”, stated Suleiman Ahmed, the Acting Chief Director of the Ministry of Justice.

He could, however, not tell whether Martey Newman objected to the payment or not since he said he had not seen any letter to that effect.

Mr. Ahmed was concluding his evidence in the case in which Mr. Woyome is being tried for causing financial loss to the State.

Asked whether it would be right to say that the office of the...correspondence between Betty Mould-Iddrisu and the Finance Ministry, Mr Ahmed answered positively, “yes, on the face of the documents”.

He agreed with counsel that the AG’s letter, dated April 29, 2009 was sent to the Office of the Chief of Staff before the first installment was paid, hence Martey Newman was aware of the payment. In that letter, the AG requested that Woyome be paid GHc7,094,493.53.

He also confirmed that the AG received an opinion from Rex Danquah of the CAN 2008 LOC, which Woyome’s lawyers tendered in evidence through Suleiman Ahmed.

In that letter, he agreed with Lawyer Osafo Buabeng that Rex Danquah referred the issue of the Financial Engineering by Woyome to members of the three-man financial committee set up, one of whom was Paul Asimenu.

He also confirmed counsel’s suggestion that Paul Asimenu wrote a letter to the AG advising her that the claim by Woyome were justified and; therefore, he was entitled to the two per cent of the amount involved in the project.

Suleiman Ahmed also told the court that part of the GHc51.2 million paid to Woyome by the State was under the tenure of former Attorney General, Martin Amidu.

He said the first installment of GHc7 million plus was paid under Betty Mould-Iddrisu in 2010, but the final installment was paid in 2011, at the time that Martin Amidu was the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

Suleiman Ahmed said he has not sighted any letter from Martin Amidu either asking the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning at the time to pay or cease payment of the rest of the amount to Woyome.

The witness agreed with counsel that the Solicitor General, Ahmed Gaisie, wrote a memo to Mr. Martin Amidu, dated November 3, 2011, in which she stated that the case of the AG against Woyome was very weak.

Meanwhile, the investigator would mount the witness box next October 16. The long adjournment is in view of the upcoming legal vacation, which begins in August.