A former Executive Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) says that officials of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) should have been held liable for prosecution for their roles in the payment of 94 million euros to Construction Pioneers (CP).
Testifying at the sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, Mr. Theophilus Cudjoe, said some of officials of the two parties allegedly allowed people to claim huge sums of money from the government as judgement debts when they did not deserve such payments.
He said the only reason why the officials of the NDC and NPP could not be charged and prosecuted by the SFO was that the organisation did not have prosecutorial powers.
He said during his tenure as Executive Director of SFO, now known as the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), he submitted 26 high profile cases to the government for consideration and action, but nothing was heard from the officials.
According to Mr. Cudjoe, Mr. Carl Ploetner and his nephew, Mr. Robert Ploetner, both of CP, as well as Mr. Ato Quarshie, former Minister of Roads and Highways under the Rawlings administration, were arrested and charged to stand trial in court for their roles in the CP saga.
However, he said, Mr. Quarshie was granted bail, while Ploetner and his nephew were given permission by the court to travel to Germany to celebrate Christmas in 2000, but never returned.
He said he was therefore surprised to meet Mr. Quarshie in London, where he was testifying at an international arbitration centre in favour of Mr. Ploetner.
Mr. Cudjoe said the fraud against CP involved Mr. Quarshie, who allegedly signed a contract with CP whose sum was bloated, resulting in the government making over payments of 44 million deutsche marks to CP.
Meanwhile, tension and heckling played out at the?sitting of the PAC, when Dr Charles Wereko Brobby, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana @ 50 Secretariat, appeared before the committee to testify on matters relating to the Ghana @ 50 celebrations.
Before Dr Wereko Brobby began his testimony, Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah, the Chairman of PAC, recused himself from presiding over the sitting of the committee.
According to him, he was once a member of the Cabinet sub-committee on the National Planning Committee of Ghana @50 Celebrations.
He, therefore, elected Mr. Simon Osei Mensah to preside.
The tone for the tension was set for the sitting when some members of the PAC heckled Dr Wereko Brobby, also known as Tarzan, when he was answering questions from members.
Dr Wereko Brobby, responded that he would be compelled to react in a particular way if some of the members continued to heckle him.
According to the former CEO, he was neither a spending officer nor did he operate a separate account.
Dr Wereko-Brobby had told the committee that he was not the spending officer of Ghana at 50 celebrations.
He explained that he was doing the “donkey work” for the National Planning Committee, chaired by Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani.
He, therefore, appealed to the committee not to engage him on discussion on whether the National Planning Committee spent more than was authorised by Parliament, but to reserve those questions for his superiors at the Office of the President.
"I was acting and following the instructions of the officers at the Office of the President, who had to approve all projects and signed all cheques which I was only a signatory," he stressed.
Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, who was the Chairman of the National Planning Committee was not present at Wednesday's sitting because he was out of the country.
Dr Wereko-Brobby said he was engaged by the National Planning Committee as a consultant to implement their decisions.
He said all the projects from the AU Village to the construction of the nine jubilee parks across the country were approved by the National Planning Committee and the cheques raised and signed by officers at the Office of the President.
He said he was only a signatory and the budget officer at the Office of the President.
Dr Wereko Brobby said issues which were above him were directed at the former President who had the opportunity to chair some of the meetings of the National Planning Committee.
The PAC, therefore, deferred some of the major questions regarding the over spending as well as the analysis of value for money concerning the celebrations to its next meeting.
Mr. Mpiani was expected to appear before the committee together with Dr. Wereko-Brobbey to answer questions bordering on the spending of $31.8 millions instead of the 20 million dollars approved by Parliament.
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