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Ato Forson ambulance case: Prosecution grills Jakpa on meeting with Attorney-General

Justice Agbenorsi Jun - 18 - 2024 , 18:41

The businessman standing trial with the Attorney-General over the ambulance case has told the High Court that he cannot confirm whether the Attorney-General knew him before filing the charges against him in December 2021.

Under the cross-examination of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Richard Jakpa told the court that he had met the Attorney-General in his cousin, Justice Yonni Kulendi’s house even when Godfred Dame was a Deputy Minister.

He added that at the time, the A-G was not his friend and as a result, he could not confirm whether Mr Dame knew him as a person.

The DPP also put to the accused that the A-G did not also know that Jakpa was Justice Kulendi’s cousin.

He replied, “I can’t confirm that for him because I’m not in his memory, he is the best to answer that”.

WhatsApp number

On their WhatsApp conversation, the DPP suggested to the accused person that he sent about 68 messages to A-G and the A-G in return sent only two responses.

The DPP further suggested to the accused that the first time that the A-G gave any assistance to him was at the instance of Justice Kulendi, who called the A-G to get his assistance for him (Jakpa) to go home after executing his bail.

Answering the question, Mr Jakpa said he only asked his cousin for the A-G’s number because he wanted to show gratitude for intervening in what he described as an attempt by EOCO to frustrate him over his surety justification.

“I had met the bail conditions but I was being frustrated administratively in the sense that EOCO claimed they had to get Lands Commission to re-evaluate the value of the property even though the value was known by an independent consultant that was going to take some days, which meant I was going to be put behind bars and I felt it was unjust.

“So I sent my cousin a message that this is what was happening and he said if you’ve met the bail conditions that’s not fair, so he contacted the A-G to impress on him to get in touch with EOCO,” said.

The case has been adjourned to Thursday (June 20).

Background

Dr Forson and Jakpa have been accused of causing financial loss of €2.37 million to the state in a deal to purchase 200 ambulances for the country between 2014 and 2016.

They have pleaded not guilty to counts of willfully causing financial loss to the state, abetment to wilfully causing financial loss to the state, contravention of the Public Procurement Act and intentionally misapplying public property.

Per the A-G’s facts accompanying the charge sheet, in 2009, while delivering the State of the Nation Address, the then President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, indicated that new ambulances would be purchased to expand the operations of the National Ambulance Service.

Jakpa, who is a local representative of Big Sea General Trading Limited, a company based in Dubai, subsequently approached the Ministry of Health with a proposal that he had arranged for finance from Stanbic Bank for the supply of 200 ambulances to the government.

Parliament approved the financing agreement between the government and Stanbic Bank.

According to the facts, on November 19, 2012, Dr Anemana wrote to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) seeking approval to engage Big Sea through single sourcing for the supply of the 200 ambulances.

They added that on August 7, 2014, Dr Forson wrote to the Bank of Ghana for letters of credit covering €3.95 million for the supply of 50 ambulances in favour of Big Sea.

The letters of credit were accordingly released to Big Sea.

The facts said 30 ambulances were purchased at a sum of €2.37 million but all were found not to have met ambulance specifications and therefore “not fit for purpose”.