Investigator appears before court

Accra July 14, GNA - The Investigator in Daniel Abodakpi and Victor Selormey, two Former Ministers of State, trial could not produce a letter he said he received from the INTERPOL when he appeared before an Accra Fast Track Court on Monday.

Abodakpi and Selormey are charged with causing financial loss to the State.

The investigator Jeff Edward Musore, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), who was led in evidence by Mr Anthony Gyambiby, told the Court that the several attempts he made to contact Dr Fred Owusu-Boadu, a Consultant to the Science and Technology Park Valley project proved futile.

ASP Musore said he tried to contact Dr Boadu by using the telephone numbers on his letterheads but this did not yield any results. He said he sent a letter through the INTERPOL and received a reply. However, he could not trace the letter from the INTERPOL in his file when he decided to show it to the Court.

The Prosecution, therefore, prayed the court to adjourn the matter to enable the Investigator to tender the report from the INTERPOL. Abodakpi, Ex-Minister for Trade and Industry and Selormey, Ex-Deputy Minister for Finance are being tried on seven counts of conspiracy to commit crime, defrauding by false pretences and wilfully causing a total loss of 2.73 billion cedis to the State.

They have denied all the charges and are on self-recognisance bail in the sum of three billion cedis each.

Continuing his evidence, ASP Musore, attached to the Commercial Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police Service, told the court that on April 25 to April 27 the then Commissioner of Police referred a special audit report to him for investigations.

He said he studied the Special Audit Report and found out that 400,000 dollars had been transferred into Dr Boadu's account at ECOBANK so he proceeded to investigate how the money was transferred and who authorized the payments for the contract.

ASP Musore stated that he visited the Ministry of Finance and ECOBANK and he obtained two letters, one dated April 10, 2001, which was instructing the Bank to transfer 100,000 dollars into Dr Boadu's account for a feasibility study he conducted for the State.

The Investigator said he questioned the Director in charge of Operations at the Bank, who said he made the transfers on Mr Selormey's instructions.

Mr Musore stated further that Selormey signed the second letter for the payment of 300,000 dollars or its cedi equivalent into Dr Boadu's account for feasibility study into the Science and Technology Valley Park.

According to the Investigator the monies were paid in tranches because the balance in the Trade and Investment Account was insufficient. Mr Musore said during his investigations he also found out that an amount of 500,000 dollars allocated for logistics support by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Ministry of Trade (MOTI) on TIP Account had been transferred into an account at ECOBANK.

The Investigator said he, therefore, proceeded to the MOF and talked to the Chief Director of the MOF, who denied any knowledge of the contract between the US government and Ghana.

A further search at the MOT also indicated that there was no contract, the Investigator said.

ASP Musore said he, therefore, visited the Gateway Secretariat and met Mr J.A. Ollenu, the then Secretary of the Secretariat, who also expressed surprise about the said contract. Later, ASP Musore said he sent the copies of the documents on the Science and Technology Park Valley to the Management Development and Productivity Institute for evaluation. Hearing continues on October 13.