Peter Osei Amoako
Details have emerged about how a contract awarded to Agricult Ghana Limited for the supply of Lithovit fertilizer for the 2016/2017 crop season was terminated by the Board of the Ghana Cocoa Board (cocobod) due to irregularities.
The Director of Finance at cocobod, Peter Osei Amoako, revealed that per records available, the contract was terminated because the fertilizer that was tested at Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) was powder. However, the product procured was rather the controversial Lithovit liquid fertilizer.
Mr. Amoako who is the sixth prosecution witness in the trial of former CEO of cocobod, Dr. Stephen Opuni, and businessman, Seidu Agongo, reveled this in his further evidence-in-chief before an Accra High Court.
He also told the court that per the records, the fertilizer which is the subject matter of the trial did not go through the two-year minimum testing period as required.
Again, he said although the fertilizer was only tested on seedlings, the product procured was applied on mature cocoa trees.
These were the reasons the witness gave why the Board of cocobod decided to terminate the 2016/17 contract awarded to Agricult Ghana Limited owned by Seidu Agongo.
Expired Certificate
The witness had in his previous evidence told the court how Dr. Opuni while in charge at cocobod signed a $19.95 million contract for the supply of fertilizer for the 2014/2015 crop season with an expired certificate from the supplier.
The witness had told the court that the basic requirement of awarding a contract to a supplier was a valid certificate issued by CRIG for the fertilizer.
But for the contact that was entered into by Dr. Opuni and Agricult Ghana limited for the supply of 700,000 litters of Lithovit fertilizer on February 6, 2015, the certificate that was attached to the contract had expired on December 31, 2014.
The witness said a certification of award signed by the CEO (Dr. Opuni) and a certificate from the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) expired in December 2014 but there was no Certificate before the signing of the contract.
Further Evidence
Mr. Amoako who led his further evidence-in-chief by Yvonne Atakora-Obuobisa was asked how payments were made for the 2014/15 purchases.
He told the court that for the 2014/15 purchases, after the procurement processes, and the contract had been signed between COCOBOD and Agricult Ghana limited, the Company delivered 700,000 litres of Lithovit liquid fertilizer.
He said after that an inspection was carried out and payments were made in 4 tranches.
The witness was also asked about how the 2015/16 fertilizer purchases were made y cocobod.
He said after all the procurement processes had been completed and a contract signed, the supplier delivered 1 million litres of Lithovit liquid fertilizer.
He said the inspection was done and approval granted and payment was made in seven tranches at a value of $26.5 million. “All payments were made in equivalence of Ghana cedis,” he said.
When asked The Prosecution asked about who authorised all the payments, the witness said it was Dr. Opuni.
Cross Examination
Samuel Codjoe, Counsel for Dr Opuni, begun cross-examining the witness by asking him how long he had worked with the Finance Department of cocobod and the witness said he had been there for the past 16 years, three months.
He asked the witness whether he had been on transfer to Takoradi, and the witness said he had been on transfer to Takoradi between January 2015 to December 2016.
“I am therefore right to state that at the time the transactions between 2013/14 and 2016 took place, you were not at the corporate finance,” he asked and the witness said “Yes”.
Mr. Codjoe then stated that because the witness was not there, all his evidence in court for the past three sessions were based on institutional memory but the witness disagreed.
Mr. Amoako explained that “I was transferred back to Corporate Head Office in January 2017 and during that period I have custody over COCOBOD Finance documents so my evidence is based on available documents in my possession.”
Hearing continues on November 17, 2020.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak