GIA case adjourned sine die

Accra, Dec. 20, GNA - The Accra High Court (Financial Division) hearin= g the case of Ghana International Airlines (GIA) on Monday adjourned the matter sine die pending an appeal before the Appeal Court.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice Bright Mensah, adjourned the case on an order by the Appeal Court to stay proceedings pending the appeal before it. Mr Acquah Sampson and Mr Egbert Faibille Jnr, counsel for Kwadwo Okyer= e Mpiani, former Chief of Staff and Professor George Gyan-Baffour, former Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, filed three applications asking the High Court to order the prosecution to make available all pre-trial disclosures to aid the accused persons in their defence. Mr Justice Mensah declined the application and upheld submissions by M= s Gertrude Aikins, Director of Public Prosecution, that the case was not a constitutional matter, which had to be sent to the Supreme Court for interpretation.

Subsequent to this, counsel filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal. The accused persons are Richard Winfred Anane, former Minister of Transport; Kwadwo Mpiani, former Chief of Staff; Anthony Akoto-Osei, former Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning; Sammy Crabbe, former Greater Accra Regional Chairman of New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Prof. Gyan-Baffour.

They are facing 22 counts of causing financial loss to the State, defrauding by false pretences, conspiracy to deceive public officers, decei= t of public officers, misappropriation of public funds, opening an offshore account without authorisation from the Bank of Ghana, conspiracy to steal and stealing. The accused persons have pleaded not guilty and been granted self-cognisance bail.

The facts as presented by Ms Aikins are that Dr Anane misrepresented facts on GIAL, which was then not in existence, to the Cabinet of former President John Agyekum Kufuor and misled government to buy shares of a fraudulent company. Dr Anane's action subsequently led to the liquidation of Ghana Airwa= ys. She said Dr Anane declared that four companies had expressed interest in Ghana Airways and later presented a letter of intent, which was signed b= y the Government of Ghana and GIAL, to form a new company called New Ghana Airways (NGA), although GIAL was at that time not in existence. Ms Aikins said the memorandum Dr Anane presented to Cabinet for signin= g was dated September 9, 2004 but GIAL was not in existence at that date. She said although PriceWaterhouseCoopers had rated NGA, which had signed an agreement with government to form GIAL, the third after two other airlines, NGA won the bid.

Ms Aikins said Mpiani, on June 2, 2005, wrote to the Chairman of Government Taskforce on Ghana Airways Limited authorising the Taskforce to take all necessary steps to put the airline into formal liquidation. The DPP said Dr Akoto-Osei signed a loan agreement committing the government to a financial obligation of paying GH¢15 million from the Soc= ial Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to GIAL.

She said Dr Akoto-Osei gave the amount from SSNIT to GIAL as a loan, without Parliamentary approval and at a time when the minority shareholders of the airline had abandoned the company by withdrawing 1.9 million dollars from GIAL account without the consent of majority shareholder, Government o= f Ghana. Ms Aikins said Mpiani authorised the release of six million dollars to GIAL in September 2008, without Parliamentary approval. She said Crabbe, who represented the minority shareholders in the company, on June 27, 2005, withdrew 1.9 million dollars from the Government of Ghana's account, without approval from the government, the majority shareholder.