Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson
Credible intelligence gathered indicates that Minority Leader in Parliament and former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has reached out to the Attorney General hoping to have the criminal action against him settled through a plea bargain.
Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that Dr. Forson, has through his lawyers written to the Attorney General seeking to settle the trial initiated against him for willfully causing financial loss of €2.37 million to the state, through a contract to purchase 200 ambulances for the Ministry of Health, among other charges.
The ambulances, according to court documents, are ordinary buses which are not fit for purpose as they do not have the needed equipment that an ambulance requires.
The settlement offer comes barely three months after the Office of the Attorney General rejected a proposal by counsel for Richard Jakpa, who is standing trial alongside Dr. Forson.
The proposal, according to a confidential source, sought to pay the cedi equivalent of €2 million in two tranches – €500,000 upon settlement of the agreement and a further €1.5 million spread over a period of six months.
The proposal also sought Government of Ghana to return the 30 defective ambulances with all the accessories they came once repayment has been made, as well as discontinue the criminal prosecution of all three accused persons.
But the Office of the Attorney General rejected the terms of the proposal for various reasons, among which include the fact that the proposed money does not make up for the entire money the state lost as result of the purchase of the 30 defective ambulances.
Another reason for the rejection of the proposal, DAILY GUIDE understood, was that the proposal only covers one of the three accused persons and there is no admission of guilt by Mr. Jakpa or any of the accused persons with respect to the charges levelled against them, an attempt Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, considered unknown to the criminal procedure laws of Ghana.
Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court judge, on June 15, 2023, in a ruling allowed the trial to continue since counsel for the accused could not reach a settlement with the prosecution.
Dr. Forson’s Move
The move by Dr. Forson to have the case settled is an attempt by him to avoid a full trial and the possibility of being convicted and eventually jailed in the event that he is found guilty at the end of a trial.
Dr. Forson’s letter written by his counsel and sighted by this paper refers to the proposals earlier presented to the Office of the Attorney General to have the matter settled.
The letter also indicated further that there were no objections to the terms of settlement proposed previously.
It remains to be seen what the Attorney General’s reaction would be to Dr. Forson’s letter written and signed by his counsel, Dr. Abdul Basit Aziz Bamba, associating the MP with earlier proposal to have the case settled.
A source has indicated that Dr. Forson’s letter present a better chance for the prosecution to consider the proposal as it eliminates the major reason cited by the Attorney General in rejecting the previous settlement proposal by Mr. Jakpa – the absence of an offer by all the accused persons.
The Attorney General, per Section 35 of the Courts Act, has the option to either accept or reject the terns of settlement proposed by the accused persons, but the ultimate decision rests with the court on whether or not the trial should be truncated as a result of the settlement.
The source also indicates that the Attorney General is yet to make a decision on Dr. Forson’s letter, but that decision could be ready by October 12, 2023, when the case resumes before the trial court.
Dr. Ato Forson, Sylvester Anemana, a former Chief Director at the Ministry of Health, as well as private businessman, Richard Jakpa, are standing trial for willfully causing financial loss of €2.37 million to the state, through a contract to purchase 200 ambulances for the Ministry of Health, among other charges.
An Accra High Court on March 30, 2023, ordered Dr. Forson and two others to open their defence in a trial in which they are accused of purchasing defective vehicles as ambulances for the Ministry of Health.
Dr. Forson has since opened his defence and called two witnesses, and is set to call former Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, as his third witness when the trial resumes.
By Gibril Abdul Razak