Collins Dauda and Dr. Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah
Former Minister of Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH), Alhaji Collins Dauda and four others who have been charged for causing $200million financial loss to the State have been granted bail by an Accra High Court.
This was after the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the 52 charges preferred against them by the Attorney General for their involvement in the alleged misapplication of funds in the Saglemi Housing Project.
Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame who was in court did not oppose to the granting of bail but urged the court to take into consideration the various sums in respect of which the accused persons were charged.
The court presided over by Justice Comfort Tasiame granted Alhaji Dauda a self-recognizable bail and he is to deposit his Ghanaian passport to court registrar.
The others have also been granted bail with various sums of money and sureties some of whom must be civil or public servants.
The case has been adjourned to October 13, 2021.
Trial
Alhaji Collins Dauda, NDC MP for Asutifi South in the Ahafo Region, Dr. Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah, a former Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu, Chief Director at the Ministry for Water Resources, Works and Housing when the Saglemi Housing deal was prepared and signed, businessman Andrew Clocanas, Executive Chairman of Construtora OAS Ghana Limited as well as Nouvi Tetteh Angelo, the Chief Executive Officer and owner of Ridge Management Solutions Ghana Limited are before the court facing 52 counts of causing financial loss to the republic for misapplying money meant for the $200,000,000 Saglemi Housing project.
According the facts of the case, the state had invested $200 million into the 5,000 housing units project but the housing units were never completed even though the funds had been exhausted.
The initial agreement ratified by Parliament was for the construction of 5,000 housing units but by the time the project was being executed, only 1,502 housing units had been earmarked for construction without recourse to Parliament.
The fact indicates that the contract amount of $200 million was spent when even the 1,502 housing units could not fully be completed.
It says investigations revealed that only 668 were done and those are not even habitable thereby resulting in huge financial loss to Ghana.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak