Kissi Agyabeng and Ken Ofori-Atta
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has secured an order of summons to be served on former Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta and his Chef de Cabinet, Ernest Darko Akore, outside the jurisdiction as the Office takes steps to prosecute the two in absentia if they fail to return to Ghana.
The two together with six others have been charged for allegedly causing financial loss of GH¢1,436,249,828.53 to the state through the revenue assurance contract awarded by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML).
A Principal Prosecutor at the OSP, Adelaide Kobiri-Woode, told a High Court in Accra yesterday that the relevant documents pertaining to the summons obtained from the court, have been forwarded to the international desk of the Office of the Attorney General and presently being worked on for the said summons to be duly served on Mr. Ofori-Atta and Ernest Darko Akore through the authorised institutions in the United States.
She also told the court that extradition processes which were triggered by the OSP through the Attorney General are still ongoing, adding that “the Attorney General has since transmitted relevant documents to the United States.”
Meanwhile, the court has extended the time for the OSP to file additional disclosures and serve same on the accused persons by February 26, 2026.
This followed the inability of the prosecution to meet the previous timeline set by the court to file all disclosures and witness statement before yesterday’s proceedings.
The OSP has so far filed two witness statements which were only served on the accused persons yesterday, hence the court could not proceed with the case management conference (CMC) as scheduled.
Madam Kobiri-Woode told the court that there are still more disclosures the prosecution wishes to file in the trial, nothing that “the compilation of some exhibits which are voluminous resulted in our inability to file all of the disclosures as at today in court.”
She, therefore, asked for adjournment, indicating that, “in view of the additional disclosures the republic wishes to file, and also in view of the summons on A1 and A2 which are still going through international due processes, my Lord, we believe humbly that CMC to be given a little time.”
Mr. Ofori-Atta is currently on the United States and extradition processes have been initiated against him to return to Ghana to face trial in the ongoing case as well as respond to other investigations initiated against him by the OSP.
Mr. Akore who is also believed to be in the United States is yet to return to the country as the OSP seeks to prove their guilt in the criminal proceedings initiated against them.
Charges
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP),has charged former Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta and two former Commissioners-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) as well as officials ofStrategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), over the controversial revenue assurance contract awardedto the private company, costing the nation over GH¢1.4 billion in “financial loss.”
The other accused persons are Ernest Darko Akore, Chef de Cabinet of Ofori-Atta; Emmanuel Kofi Nti; Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, all former Commissioners-General of GRA, Isaac Crentsil; Kwadwo Damoah, all former Commissioners of Customs Division of GRA; Evans Adusei, Chief Executive Officer of SML and the company itself.
Together, they are facing a total of 78 counts of offences, including causing financial loss to the state, corruption and related offences, using public office for profit and attempt to commit criminal offence of influencing the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of procurement contract.
Other charges include conspiracy to commit the criminal offence of directly or indirectly influencing the procurement process to gain an unfair advantage, conspiracy to commit the criminal offence of wilful oppression, false certificate by public officer, and entering into an agreement with a financial commitment that binds the government for more than one financial year without prior authorisation by Parliament contrary to sections 33(1)(b) and 98(1)(d) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016, (Act 921).
Court documents indicate that the accused persons conspired and set up a criminal enterprise of directly and indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain unfair advantage for SML in the award of procurement contracts for transaction audit services, external price verification services, measurement audit of downstream petroleum products, upstream petroleum audit services, and minerals audit services purportedly by the Government of Ghana, acting through the Ministry of Finance and GRA.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak