Fast Track Court disposed of 63 cases; two were criminal

The Fast Track High Court, which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court last week had disposed of 63 cases since it started work in March last year, according to statistics compiled by the Ghana News Agency.

Only two of them were criminal cases with the rest being civil cases. The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Fast Track High Court was unconstitutional, triggering hot debates on the verdict.

The Supreme Court by a majority decision of 5-4 gave the judgement in the case in which Tsatsu Tsikata, Former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), challenged the legality and existence of the Fast Track Court.

He was being tried at the Fast Track Court on charges of wilfully causing financial loss to the state. The criminal cases disposed of by the court were those brought by the state against Mallam Yusif Isa, former Minister of Youth Sports and Victor Selormey, former Deputy Minister of Finance. Both of them were jailed.

Mallam Isa was found guilty of stealing 46,000 dollars meant for the payment of bonuses of players of the senior national team, the Black Stars, during a World Cup qualifying match in Sudan on February 25 last year.

He was jailed for four years on both counts to run concurrently and ordered to refund the 46,000 dollars within two months or serve a 24 additional 24 months jail term. However, upon an appeal the 24 additional months in default was quashed.

Serlomey was on December 10, 2001 sentenced to eight years' imprisonment with hard labour, when he was found guilty on two counts of defrauding the state by false pretences. He was fined 10 million cedis each on two counts of conspiracy and was to go to prison for 12 months in default and the sentences were to run concurrently.

In addition, Selormey was to pay a fine of 10 million cedis each on two counts of wilfully causing financial loss of 1.3 million dollars to the state and in default to serve additional 12 months. The sentences were to run concurrently.

The Court Manager for the Supreme Court, Boadi Botchwey, said 162 cases were registered at the court between March and December last year out of which only four were criminal cases.

The rest were civil actions brought by bankers and other financial institutions, among other things. He added that about 99 cases were still pending out of which two were criminal cases.

These are the Quality Grain and Ghana Rubber Estate Limited cases, which were brought by the Attorney -General. In the GREL case, Hanny Sherry Ayittey, a leading member of the 31st December Women's Movement, Emmanuel Agbodo, former Chief Executive of the Divestiture Implementation committee, Ralph Casely-Hayford and Satirieh Dorcas Ocran were standing trial on various charges of corruption during the privatisation of the company.

They had all pleaded not guilty and were each admitted to self-recognisance bail. In the Quality Grain case, Kwame Peprah, former Minister of Finance and Ibrahim Adam, former Minister of Food and Agriculture, George Yankey, former official of the Ministry of Finance, Ato Dadzie, former Chief of Staff and Samuel Dapaah, former Chief Director at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture are being tried for various charges including conspiracy and wilfully causing financial loss to the State.

The five are alleged to have played different roles in the scandal that resulted in the loss to the State of more than 20 million dollars. They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges and the court presided over by Mr Justice Kwame Afreh, an Appeal Court Judge, sitting as an additional High Court Judge, had granted each of them a self-recognisance bail.

In the case of Tsatsu Tsikata, the prosecution said he circumvented laid-down corporate objectives of GNPC, by-passed its Board and on his own committed the corporation to guarantee a loan of 5.5 million French francs.

The loan was granted by the French Aid Agency called Caisse Francaise de Developpement and given to Valley Farm, a private cocoa-growing company in which GNPC held an initial 17.39 per cent equity shares.

The Prosecution said when Valley Farm became distressed and defaulted in payment Tsatsu without prior approval of the GNPC Board paid CFD the principal loan plus interest totalling 6,919,123.23 French francs out of the corporation's operational funds. This act adversely affected the financial status of GNPC, hence a loss to the State, it said.