Solomon Asamoah
A former board member of Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), Kofi Boakye, has been accused of being untruthful in his testimonies before a High Court in Accra where former Chief Executive Officer, Solomon Asamoah and the Board Chairman of the Fund, Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi are standing trial for allegedly causing $2 million financial loss to the state.
The accusation made by Victoria Barth, counsel for Solomon Asamoah, came as a result of some contradictory statements made by the witness during cross-examination, some of which contradicted what the prosecution’s first witness had stated.
Mr. Asamoah and Prof. Ameyaw-Akumfi are standing trial for allegedly causing $2 million financial loss to the state by investing it in the Sky Train project.
The prosecution’s main accusation is that the two accused sanctioned the investment of the fund without the approval of the GIIF board.
Although there are documents that refer to the project as board approved, the prosecution’s first two witnesses – Kofi Boakye and Yaw Odame-Darkwa, who were members of the board, claim there was no board approval for the project.
Kofi Boakye, who was an acting secretary to the GIIF board and sub boards, went a step further to claim that there was no “final approval” for the project.
The two prosecution witnesses who have so far testified have made contradictory statements while under cross-examination by defence lawyers.
During cross-examination, Kofi Boakye categorically stated that “the Sky Train matter was a matter that was mentioned at several board meetings,” a statement which sharply contradicts Yaw Odame-Darkwa’s claim that “the Sky Train concept was only introduced at one of our board meetings.”
Mr. Boakye also contradicted his colleague board member when he claimed that the full board of GIIF never considered or approved the 2019 audited financial statement of the Fund, adding that he could not tell if the 2020 and 2021 financial statements were approved, as he had left the board at that time.
However, Mr. Yaw Odame-Darkwa, who was Chairman of the Audit Committee of GIIF, while under cross-examination by Mrs. Barth, had confirmed that the 2019 and 2020 audited financial statements of the Fund were duly considered and approved by the full board of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund.
The 2019 audited financial statements of GIIF recognised the Sky Train project as one of the existing projects of the Fund, despite claims that it was not approved by the board.
“The Fund has invested US$2 million in Ai SkyTrain Consortium Holdings incorporated in the Republic of Mauritius. The purpose is to establish Ghana SkyTrain Limited to develop the Accra SkyTrain Project through a concession on a Design, Build, Finance and Operate arrangement. The Fund holds an equity interest of 10% in the company,” GIIF’s Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2019 stated.
This report was duly signed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and Boateng, Offei and Co. which did the joint audit as well as Mr. Asamoah and Prof. Ameyaw-Akumfi, who signed on behalf of the governing board of GIIF.
The lawyer then confronted the witness about whether he would be surprised to learn that his fellow board member, Yaw Odame-Darkwa has confirmed to the court that the financial statements of 2020 and 2021 were duly approved by the entire GIIF board before the CEO and Chairman appended their signatures to them.
“That would be surprising,” Kofi Boakye answered, adding that by the end of January 2021, the board of which he was a member had been reconstituted. “Consequently, unless my memory fails me, these audited accounts should have been considered by the board that replaced us.”
Mrs. Barth also drew the attention of the witness to page 42 of the 2019 audited financial statements where the Sky Train project is described as an existing project which GIIF had invested $2 million in for an equity stake of 10%.
Although he admitted that the audited accounts make that categorical statement, he said an audit account is not sacrosanct.
“This report is being attributed to the board of which I was a member and I re-emphasise that this audited account was not considered and approved by the board of which I was a member.”
This and some other responses resulted in Mrs. Barth accusing the witness of not being “a truthful witness in all matters relating to the GIIF board’s approval of the Sky Train project even when confronted with credible documentary evidence.”
The witness denied this and said, “I have answered all questions truthfully.”
BY Gibril Abdul Razak