We didn't advise GNPC to invest in Valley Farms - Witness

Jude Arthur, former Senior Manager of the Investment Holdings Limited (IHL), a subsidiary of Merchant Bank, on Monday told an Accra Fast Track Court that the bank did not advise anybody on equity in Valley Farms.

Answering questions under cross-examination by counsel for Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) who is being tried by the court, Mr Arthur disagreed with a suggestion by counsel that GNPC's decision to invest in Valley Farms was on advice from the bank.

Tsikata is charged with four counts of willfully, causing financial loss of more than 2.3 billion cedis to the state and intentionally misapplying public property. He told the court under cross-examination by Major (retired) R. S. Agbenoto, Tsikata's counsel, that when GNPC decided to invest in the equities of Valley Farms, the bank was only instructed to transfer 20 million cedis into the accounts of the company.

Arthur agreed with counsel that as GNPC's nominee or trustee in Valley Farms IHL dealt with GNPC as a body and not with Tsikata as an individual. Witness told the court that as Financial Adviser of Valley Farms, Merchant Bank was tasked with the responsibility to verify the figures in the report of the feasibility studies conducted by experts on Valley Farms.

Witness agreed with a suggestion by counsel that the Valley Farm Project had good prospects. Arthur said when Valley Farms defaulted in the interest rate of the loan, GNPC, being the guarantor, had no option than to take a decision and pay it.

Tsikata is alleged to have caused financial loss in a transaction in which he committed GNPC to guarantee a loan to Valley Farms from Caisse Francaise de Developpement (CFD), a French Development Aid Agency.

Tsikata also allegedly invested the corporation's 20 million cedis in Valley Farms, thus misapplying public property.

He has pleaded not guilty and Mrs Justice Henrietta Abban, the trial judge, has admitted him to bail in his own recognisance in the sum of 700 million cedis. The case has been adjourned to Friday, 13 December.