No records of transfers to Owusu-Boadu

The Controller and Accountant-General's (CAG) Department has no records of payments made to Dr Fred Owusu-Boadu as consultancy fees for feasibility studies into the Science and Technology Park Valley Projects.

John Prempeh, the Controller and Accountant-General, said this on Monday at an Accra Fast Track Court trying two former Ministers of State for various alleged malpractices in the Trade and Investment Programme (TIP).

Prempeh who was led in evidence by Anthony Gyambiby, a Principal State Attorney said the CAG was informed about the alleged payment as a result of a letter it received from Baffour Awuah and Associates, an audit firm, asking it to confirm four payments made to Dr Owusu-Boadu.

Daniel Kwasi Abodakpi, ex-Minister for Trade and Industry and Victor Selormey, former 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. Prempeh said on 21 May 2001, Baffour Awuah and Associates wrote to him to confirm whether there had been the transfers of $100,000, $500,000, $865,000 and $432,000 to Dr Owusu-Boadu.

He said the department wrote back to Baffour Awuah that there were no records to that effect. Asked whether he knew anything about TIP, Mr Prempeh said the programme was established in 1993 by the United States Information Department (USAID), with the Ghana government to support non-traditional exports with an initial fund of three million dollars.

He said TIP fund was lodged at the Bank of Ghana (BOG) with banks such as ECOBANK and Metropolitan and Allied Bank as distributing channels. Prempeh said TIP funds were also part of the Consolidated Fund belonging to the Ghana Government.

The CAG said that the Ministry of Finance (MOF) played a vital role in the disbursement of TIP. He said his department received several instructions from MOF on the disbursement of the fund.

Prempeh said on 19 September 2000, the CAG received a letter from Selormey instructing him to transfer $500,000 from BOG to ECOBANK. The CAG said he complied with the directive adding that on 28 September 2000, his department wrote to BOG that the cedi equivalent of the $500,000 should be paid to ECOBANK.

During cross-examination by Charles Hayibor, defence counsel, Prempeh agreed that some of the letters were written through the Auditor-General and not the CAG. Hayibor prayed the court presided over by Stephen Farkye, an Appeal Court Judge who is sitting as an additional High Court Judge, to grant an adjournment to enable him to continue with the cross-examination. The judge obliged and adjourned to 24 March.