Court discharges Volta Land Valuation Board officials

Five employees of the Volta Region Land Valuation Board (LVB) and its former Regional Director, Emmanuel Ampiaw, who were being tried at the regional tribunal for fraudulently causing financial loss to the state and abuse of public office for private profit were last Monday discharged for want of prosecution.

George Sika, a businessman and Felix Adjasoo, teacher, who were jointly charged with them were also discharged. Ampiaw, Kwadwo Gyapong, Vincent Okanta Budu, Kingsley Ansah and Sampson Obeng, all of the LVB, Sika and Adjasco pleaded not guilty to fraudulently causing financial loss to the state, dishonest abuse of public office for private profit, stealing and falsifying documents.

Mr. Emmanuel F. Dzakpasu, the tribunal chairman, said given the very chequered history of about 27 adjournments, "it is our considered opinion that the prosecution lacks the courage to prosecute this case". Mr. Dzakpasu said: "the case is accordingly struck out for want of prosecution."

He said the state is however, at liberty to re-file the case for prosecution. The state was represented by Mr. Charles A. Ofori of the Serious Fraud Office and Mrs. Aba Opoku and Mrs. Felicia Otchere both of the Attorney-General Department. Mr. J.B. Quarshie-Aidam and Mr. Jones Dotse represented Sika and the other accused persons respectively.

According to the prosecution, the accused persons, between August 1997 and June 1998 at Ho, acted together with a common purpose to collect specified sums of money meant for crop compensation in respect of government acquired land for the construction of Kadjebi-Asato Senior Secondary School from the LVB that they were not entitled to.

The prosecution said Sika and Ampiaw fraudulently benefited from 335,797,650 cedis being 30 percent of the total compensation due to the landowners. In addition, Sika alone fraudulently benefited from 659,967,555 cedis.

The prosecution said Ampiaw further benefited from 92,339,000 cedis being compensation meant for James Oko and Stephen Nyame. Gyapong fraudulently received 12,462,000 cedis while Budu took 33,838,250 cedis meant for Kofi Sarpong (deceased) with Obeng collecting 21,215,000 cedis also meant for Kwaku Dua Mensah.

Ampiaw was also cited for dishonestly appropriating 259,900,000 cedis belonging to LVB. The prosecution said Ampiaw again dishonestly abused his office for private profit by withdrawing 125,000,000 cedis of the compensation money and placed it in a fixed deposit account at the Ho branch of the National Investment Bank (NIB) thereby making a profit of 7,729,452 cedis.

Ansah and Adjasco received 3,500,000 cedis and 500,000 cedis respectively from Sika for their role in assisting him (Sika) to dishonestly appropriate monies of the LVB. The prosecution said Budu and Obeng used forged affidavit to collect 33,838,250 cedis and 21,215,900 being crop compensation in respect of Kofi

Sarpong (deceased) and Kwaku Dua Mensah while Gyapong collected 12,462,000 cedis.