Ato Forson Case: Former Chief Director of MOH made false representation to PPA—Witness

Rockson Gyimah, an Investigator with the Office of the Special Prosecutor, on Tuesday said Dr Sylvester Anemana, a former Chief Director at the Ministry of Health, made a false representation to the Public Procurement Authority in the ambulance contract.

The witness told the Court hearing the trial involving Dr Ato Forson, the former Deputy Minister and two others, said the accused person indicated in the letter to the PPA that Big Sea LLC was been single-sourced because that had arranged for funds for the ambulance.

Dr Forson and two others are in court for allegedly wilfully causing financial loss to the State.

Dr Forson was granted a self-recognisance bail of GHS3 million for allegedly wilfully causing

the financial loss of 2,370,000 euros to the State.

He is also facing an additional charge of “Intentionally misapplying public property contrary to section 1 (2) of the Public Property Protection Act, 1977 (SMCD 140).”

Dr Anemana was also granted bail of one million Ghana Cedis with three sureties one of whom shall be a public servant not below the rank of a director.

While Mr Richard Dzakpa, a Businessman, was also granted bail of five million Ghana Cedis with three sureties one of whom must be justified with documents of landed property.

In a cross-examination led by Alex Owiredu Dankwa, Counsel for Anemana asked whether Parliament approved the financing agreement between the Government and the Stanbic Bank to finance the purchase of the ambulances, and the witness answered in the affirmative.

The witness said per the draft agreement submitted to Parliament, bearing the name of Big Sea LLC, the investigation revealed that the false claims made by Dr Anemana made the PPA approve the procurement.

Gyimah said the accused person also made false statements in the letter that the conditions for the financial agreement mandated that Big Sea LLC should be single-sourced.

“It also revealed that at the time that these statements were made, the financial agreement had not been executed,” he added. 

He said their investigations revealed that the statements made by the accused person were just to facilitate the process for Big Sea LLC to have the means to be the only sourced procurer. 

The witness said Stanbic Bank never executed any financial agreement even though approvals were made.

Asked, whether their investigations were extended to the PPA, the witness answered in the affirmative, saying the investigation dealt with documentary evidence, and “it was on that we dealt with them.” 

He said the PPA approved the document because of the false representations made by the Chief Director.

He said it was also revealed that without PPA approval, the Letters of Credit (LC) could not have been established. 

The witness told the Court that he was aware that the accused person was transferred from the Ministry of Health in 2013 but an investigation revealed that in 2012, he wrote a letter to PPA and had already made the false representation.

He agreed that the Chief Director was not at the Ministry when the LC was established, and it was also established that a value-for-money audit was not conducted.

It was at this stage that the prosecution told the Court that they had closed their case.

The State called five prosecution witnesses, who gave their evidence and were crossed examined by the defence to close their case.

The Court will on March 30, 2023 rule on whether a prima facie case had been made against the accused persons after the parties have filed their submissions.