Christopher Ameyaw- Akumfi
Details have emerged that an internal memo of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) referred to the Accra Sky Train project as one of the projects approved by the Fund’s board in 2019.
Former Chief Executive Officer of GIIF, Solomon Asamoah and the erstwhile Board Chairman of the Fund, Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, have been charged before the court for their alleged involvement in unapproved $2 million investment in the Accra Sky Train project, which allegedly resulted in financial loss to the state.
The prosecution’s main case is that the $2 million investment was not approved by the board of GIIF, hence should not have been made.
The accused have denied the charges against them and have maintained that the project went through the requisite processes and received the approval of the board.
The prosecution’s first witness, Yaw Odame-Darkwa, in his evidence-in-chief and during cross-examination, insisted that the project was mentioned at only one board meeting and did not receive board approval.
But Victoria Barth, counsel for Mr. Asamoah, has tendered multiple documents and email correspondences mentioning the projects, some of which described it as an existing investment by the Fund.
The latest document to do so is an addendum to the 2019 budget estimate presented to the board in December 2019, which was sent to GIIF board members in 2019.
This memo essentially warned that without any additional funds, GIIF cannot take on any new investment or major expenditure without failing on its obligation to fund the already board-approved projects “according to the details indicated in Table 1 below.”
“Table 1” then goes on to list a number of projects, including the Accra Sky Train projects as those already approved by the board.
When confronted with this fact, the witness, Yaw Odame-Darkwa, agreed that the Sky Train project was described by the memo as already board approved in respect of which $2 million was to be disbursed for project development equity.
He, however, claimed that the said memo was written to him by a tier 2 management member and that he was sure the documents probably went through the management member’s “bosses before it was presented to me.”
He further claimed that the defence referring to a memo which has nothing to do with projects but a tier 2 management member writing to the Chairman of his committee as the approval for the Sky Train project, “for me does not sit well.”
Mrs. Barth then suggested to the witness that when he received the memo via email from Solomon Asamoah, “you did not raise any question about the description of the Sky Train Project as an already board approved project.”
The witness rather replied cheekily that “I didn’t go to the board to go and mark script. We went there to make decisions. In this memo, I’m being asked to make certain decisions, my focus was not on project. My focus was on the issue and the issues had to do with GIIF’s budget.”
“So, you did not raise any question about the description of the Sky Train Project as an already board-approved project. Did you?” the lawyer further asked.
“Yes, It was unnecessary,” the witness replied.
Again, the witness agreed with counsel that none of the Audit Committee members of GIIF questioned the description of the Sky Train Project as an already board-approved project, in the email correspondences.
“The responses from you and the other Audit Committee members in the email read in exhibit 29, were rather focused on the need to make room in the budget for the recruitment of 4 additional staff, namely: Head of Legal, Risk Manager, Procurement Manager and Investment Officer. Is that not so?” the lawyer further asked.
“Yes, my Lady, because at the time that was the focus,” the witness answered.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak