I executed a number of contracts for GREL

Madam Georgina Okaiteye, the Seventh Prosecution Witness in the Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL) divestiture case, said on Wednesday that she executed a number of contracts for the company.

Giving evidence under cross-examination in the case at an Accra Fast Track High Court, Madam Okaiteye said her company, Gina Lawrence Construction Works, won contracts from GREL, but said she could not give the figure.

Narrating how she came by the contracts, Madam Okaiteye, a member of the 31st December Women's Movement (DWM), said after the Movement had assisted Societe Industrielle Plantation Hevea (SIPH) to win the bid for GREL, her company was awarded contracts to construct feeder roads.

Witness disagreed with a suggestion by Mr David Lamptey, Counsel for Hanny Sherry Ayittey, Treasurer of the 31st December Women's Movement that she earned a commission on those contracts instead of profit, but she could not tell offhand how much accrued from the jobs that were done.

Madam Okaiteye denied a suggestion by Counsel that all the contracts she executed for GREL amounted to between 300 and 400m cedis. She told the court that she received a cheque for 17,500 pounds from Dr Albert Owusu-Barnafo, a consultant of GREL, in connection with work the two of them had done.

Witness said Dr Owusu-Barnafo also handed over to her an amount of ?35m on behalf of SIPH, but disagreed with a suggestion by Counsel that the money belonged to DWM. "The money was a personal gift from SIPH, and not for the movement," she told the court.

Madam Okaiteye said after Dr Owusu-Barnafo had introduced her to Etienne Marie Arthur Popeler, former Managing Director of GREL, she received financial assistance of 10,000 dollars from Popeler in 1995-96.

In response to a question by Counsel as to who owned Caridem, Witness said the company was a subsidiary of 31st DWM. Madam Okaiteye said the Movement made Ayittey its Director.

Ayittey is being tried alongside Emmanuel Amuzu Agbodo, former Executive Secretary of the Divestiture Implementation Committee, Ralph Casely-Hayford, a businessman and Sati Dorcas Ocran, Housewife for their alleged involvement in bribery and corruption in connection with GREL's privatisation.

They are alleged to have played various roles to influence the DIC Board to divest GREL in favour of SIPH. All four have denied their charges and each of them has been admitted to a self-recognisance bail. The case has been adjourned to Thursday, 13 March for further cross-examination of the Witness.