Attorney-General to file appeal against acquittal and discharge of Ato Forson

The Attorney-General (AG) says he will appeal against the Court of Appeal decision to acquit and discharge Dr Ato Forson, a former Deputy Minister of Finance and Richard Jakpa, a Businessman.

According to the AG, the appeal is for an order to erase the effect of the erroneous decision of the Court.

In a statement issued in Accra by Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, after the ruling, said, “We consider the decision of the Court of Appeal grossly unfair to the nation and inimical to the fight against impunity and abuse of public office.”

On Tuesday, July 30, 2024, the Court of Appeal by a split 2–1 decision, allowed an appeal against the ruling of the High Court dated March 30, 2023, dismissing a submission of no case filed by the accused persons and ordering them to open their defence.

It said the Office of the Attorney-General considered the decision of the Court of Appeal to be perverse in the quest for public accountability and the rule of law.

The statement said the decision clearly was heavily against the weight of the cogent evidence led by the prosecution in substantiation of all the charges against the accused persons at the trial.

It said the relevant facts of the matter, as borne out by the undisputed evidence led so far, show that the vehicles purporting to be ambulances were imported into the country in December 2014 in violation of the contract governing the transaction.

It said the then Minister of Health, Ms Sherry Aryittey, had cautioned in writing against the importation of vehicles into the country.

The statement said there was thus no request by the Ministry of Health for the vehicles to be imported into the country, or for the Letters of Credit (LC) which were the means of payment for the vehicles under the contract to be established.

“With no request from the Ministry of Health or any authorisation whatsoever, and at a time that the period for supply of the ambulances under the contract had even lapsed, Dr Forson, by letters dated August 7 and August 14, 2014, instructed the Bank of Ghana and the Controller and Accountant-General to issue Letters of Credit (LC) for the payment for the vehicles,” it said.

The statement said the LCs were consequently established on August 18, 2014, and Big Sea General Trading LLC, the suppliers of the vehicles based in Dubai, whose contract had no Parliamentary approval, proceeded to ship the vehicles on receipt of the LC.

It said when the vehicles arrived, they were not of the kind specified in the contract and apart from the absence of basic parts and equipment required for an ambulance, the National Ambulance Service and the Ministry of Health noted serious defects with every material part of the vehicles.

It said such was the fundamental nature of the defects that Dr Alex Segbefia, a former Minister of Health, described the vehicles as “ordinary vans” not fit for purpose.

It said in fact, a report on the vehicles by the authorised dealers in Mercedes Benz, commissioned by the Ministry of Health in 2015 to assess the vehicles (tendered in evidence by the prosecution), said the vehicles could never be converted into ambulances.

It said the defects were so irremediable that from the time the vehicles started arriving in December 2014 up to January 2017 when the erstwhile John Mahama administration left office, they could not be converted into ambulances.

The High Court on March 30, 2023, ordered Dr Forson and two others to open their defence after a prima facie case had been established them. 

Two are Dr Sylvester Anemana, a former Chief of Director at Ministry of Health, and Mr Jakpa.

Dr Forson, Dr. Anemana and Jakpa are charged with causing financial loss to the State.

The State later filed a nolle prosequi to discontinue the charges leveled against Dr Anemana, who is currently out of the country for medical treatment.

Dr Forson was granted a self-recognisance bail of GH¢3 million for allegedly wilfully causing financial loss of €2,370,000 to the State.

He is also facing an additional charge of “Intentionally misapplying public property contrary to section 1 (2) of the Public Property Protection Act, 1977 (SMCD140).”

Source: GNA

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