William Mathew Tetteh Tevie and Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie
An Accra High Court has set May 12, 2020 to deliver its judgment in the trial of former board members of the National Communications Authority (NCA) who have been charged with causing financial loss to the state.
They include former chairman of the NCA board, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie; former Director General of the NCA, William Mathew Tetteh Tevie; Nana Owusu Ensaw, a former chairman of the finance sub-committee of the NCA board and Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, a former National Security Coordinator and an ex-member of the NCA board.
A private individual, George Derek Oppong, Director of Infraloks Development Limited, completes the list of accused persons who are facing charges including stealing and money laundering in the purchase of cyber-surveillance system for counter-terrorism in the country at the cost of some $4 million.
All the accused persons pleaded not guilty and have already opened their defence after the prosecution closed their case.
Fresh Orders
Yesterday, the court, presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffuor, a Court of Appeal judge sitting as an additional High Court judge, ordered the prosecution and the defence lawyers to file their written addresses by April 20, 2020.
Trial
Apart from the charge of willfully causing financial loss to the
state, the accused persons are facing 16 charges, including conspiracy to
steal, stealing, using public office for profit, among
others.
They have been accused of allegedly creating, looting and sharing $4 million among themselves under the disguise of procuring a cyber-surveillance system for counter-terrorism in the country.
Prosecution Case
The state led by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Yvonne Attakora-Obuobisa, called six prosecution witnesses, namely Abena Asarfo Adjei, Director of Legal Affairs at NCA; Dr. Isaac Yaw Ani, Deputy Director General in charge of management and operations; Colonel Michael Kwadwo Poku, Director of Operations at National Security Secretariat; Duncan Opare, Deputy National Security Coordinator and Detective Chief Inspector Michael Nkrumah, the investigator of the case.
Mrs. Asafu-Adjei, who was the first prosecution witness, told the court that she does not have any knowledge of a $4 million contract between Infraloks Development Limited (IDL) and the NCA for the purchase of a cyber security system.
The witness who is also the acting secretary of the NCA and has oversight responsibilities over procurement at the authority told the court that she only got to know of a purported contract between the NCA and the private company when the police investigator showed her a document in relation to the NCA trial.
She told the court that the NCA’s procurement plan for 2015 and the authority’s budget for 2015, a copy of which is posted on the Public Procurement Authority’s website, do not make any provisions for the procurement of a cyber security system which the accused persons purportedly contracted IDL to supply.
The second witness, Deputy Director General in charge of management and operations at NCA, Dr. Isaac Yaw Ani, told the court that Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie ordered the release of $4 million to Infraloks Development for the supply of the equipment.
Another witness, Deputy National Security Coordinator, Duncan Opare, also told the court that National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) never requested the purchase of the equipment and the equipment which was purportedly bought for use by the NSCS for counter terrorism purposes allegedly cannot be traced in any documents of the state agency.
The investigator, Detective Chief Inspector Michael Nkrumah, told the court that it was Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie’s revelation that all the accused persons benefitted financially from the deal that led the BNI to pursue a charge of conspiracy to commit crime and stealing.
Defence
The accused persons opened their defence and denied all the charges levelled against them, insisting that the equipment was purchased for the NSCS as requested.
They also denied the charge of benefitting from the purchase of the equipment.
Alhaji Osman’s testimony was, however, heard in camera.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak