Selormey, Abodakpi in court again

TWO former Ministers of State in the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government were yesterday arraigned before an Accra Fast Track Court (FTC) for their alleged involvement in a "Science and Technology Community Project" scandal.

Dan Abodakpi, the former Minister of Trade and Industry and Victor Selormey, a former deputy, Minister of 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 to the state.

They pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and the trial judge, Mr Justice F. T. Farkye, an Appeal Court Judge sitting as an additional High Court Judge, granted each of them a self-recognisance bail in the sum of ?3 billion.
They will appear again on Monday, October 28.

Narrating the facts of the case, Mr Anthony Gyambiby, a Principal State Attorney, told the court that between May and December 2000, the accused persons allegedly transferred $4,000 into the local bank account of Dr Fred Owusu Boadu, a consultant, through Ecobank (Ghana) Limited.
Mr Gyambiby said the monies whose transfers were authorised by Selormey, were to be used as fees for a feasibility study towards the establishment of the project.
He told the court that the project contract was supposed to be witnessed by the Legal Officers at the Ministry of Trade and Industry or the Attorney-General's Department, but this was not done.

Mr Gyambiby told the court that the transfers had no official correspondence whatsoever between Dr Owusu-Boadu and either the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The Principal State Attorney said what was purported to be a contract, was signed by both Abodakpi and the consultant but there was no witness.

Additionally, he said, the contract was not initialled page by page as required.
Mr Gyambiby said the contract lacked the detailed information required in a feasibility study, such as market analysis, financial projections and analysis of the project.

The Principal State Attorney told the court that there was the highly irregular use of letterheads from a Texas University, with bills amounting to $300,000, when the University was not a party to the contract.

Serlomey is currently serving an eight-year term at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons on a similar charge of wilfully causing financial loss to the state.