BOG never transferred 739,000 dollars - Witness

A prosecution witness yesterday told the Fast Track Court trying six persons in the Quality Grain case that the Bank of Ghana (BOG) never transferred 739,450.58 dollars to the South Trust Bank in Alabama in the United States.

A Deputy Chief Manager of Debt Management Unit of the BOG Yaw Agbelonoo Apaloo, said the amount, which was authorised by the Ministry of Finance to be transferred to the bank on behalf of the Quality Grain Company, was not effected because the ministry wrote back to have it suspended.

Led in evidence by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Osafo Sampong, Mr. Apaloo said the BOG received the payment advice on April 18, this year but the ministry on August 9, wrote to suspend the payment.

When the prosecution sought to tender the letter in evidence, Mr. Kwaku Baah, Counsel for Kwame Peprah, former Minister of Finance and third accused person, complained that the letter was "to cover up the weakness of the prosecution's evidence against the accused persons".

Mr. Baah explained that the letter was written a day after a prosecution witness had testified that the Chief Director at the Ministry of Finance signed the payment advice on behalf of the Minister at a time Peprah was not in office.

Counsel wondered why the payment advice was signed in April and the letter for the suspension was written in August. He said the defence would not object to the tendering of the document but urged the court to take judicial notice of its relevance to the case.

The presiding judge, Justice Kwame Afreh obliged and asked Mr. Baah to comment on the document in his address. The other accused persons are, Ibrahim Adam, former Minister of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Dr Samuel Dapaah, Dr George Yankey, Nana Ato Dadzie and Kwesi Ahwoi, all former senior public officials. They have pleaded not guilty and each of them is on a self-recognisance bail.

Mr. Apaloo gave a catalogue of payments the BOG made from April 1998, to October 4, last year. Cross-examined by defence counsel, witness said payments were done in a week on receipt of payment advice.

Mr. Apaloo could not say whether the payments were an agreement between debtor-creditor since he did not know the conditions under which the ministry gave the directives.

Another prosecution witness, Seth Vordzorgbe, an Economic Consultant said sometime in September 1998, the government contracted him to prepare a report on the company's rice project at Aveyime in the Volta Region. He said he submitted two separate reports and recommended that the government should have 70 per cent shares in the project and at the same time, a guarantor for loans be obtained by the company and must have a representative on the board of directors.

Witness said he suggested to the government to remove all the impediments including, acquisition of suitable land for mechanised rice farming, resettlement and payment of compensation to occupants of the land for the project to take off.

Under cross-examination, Mr. Vordzorgbe said debarring all the impediments the project could be a viable one. Witness said since he submitted the reports, he has never visited the project nor heard from the government. The case was adjourned to August 27 to enable the prosecution to produce two witnesses from the US.