By William Yaw Owusu

Friday,July 22,2006
The Accra Fast Track High Court trying Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), for allegedly causing financial loss to the state will give judgment in the case on October 27.

This follows the closing of addresses by both the prosecution and the defense.

Mr. Tsikata has been charged with three counts of causing financial loss of about 2.3 billion cedis to the state through a loan he, acting on behalf of the GNPC, guaranteed for Valley Farms Limited, a private cocoa producing company in 1991, and another count of misapplying public funds.

Valley Farms contracted the loan from Caisse Centrale, now Agence Francaise De Development (AFD), in 1991, but defaulted in the payment thus compelling GNPC, which acted as guarantors, to pay the loan in 1996.

Mr. Tsikata has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and is on a self-cognizance bail.

Before Mrs. Justice Henrietta Abban, the trial judge, adjourned the case until October Major R.S. Agbenator (rtd), counsel for Mr. Tsikata, finally addressed the court in response to some issues raised by the Attorney General, Mr. Joe Ghartey who is prosecuting the case.

He said that the Attorney General’s claim that Mr. Tsikata caused the loss was, “supported by the majority and the minority” in the Supreme Court was untrue. Since proof beyond reasonable doubt was the required standard.

He further said there was no evidence of the accused delegating authority to make the payments and therefore, being held responsible under section 10(7) of the GNPC Law 64 as contended by the prosecution adding that, “How does receipt of a letter to the accused after the payments charged had already been made at the insistance of a witness showed authorization to Mr. Fabyan, another witness by the accused”.

“It has been claimed that the accused should have put in place a counter guarantee but the provision in the guarantee agreement that put GNPC in the shoes of the lender once it made payment on behalf of the lender was indeed, a form of such security for GNPC”, said Counsel.

On the issue of the GNPC going beyond its core business, Major Agbenator said, “Evidence from board meetings of GNPC as tendered in evidence showed that this was a commercial and economic reality for GNPC and not a fiction”.

He said new charges, being “action and omission”, which were no where reflected in the charge sheet came up in the prosecution’s submission, but the two cannot be bundled together, adding that, “Even if the accused failed to comply with a provision of the GNPC law, which we deny, that would not establish criminal liability on his part”.

The high-profile case started in October 2002 with Mr. Osafo Sampong the then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) as the prosecutor.

It has seen more adjournments than any other case in Ghana’s history.

In 2002 the Supreme Court ruled that the Fast Track Court trying the case was unconstitutional after Mr. Tsikata, challenged its constitutionality, but that decision was later overturned in a judicial review.

Judgement on the case has been fixed for October 27 the issue of whether or not the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has immunity from the country’s court processes is still pending at the Court of Appeal. The issue of stay of proceeding pending the appeal has, however been dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Mr. Joe Ghartey is the third Attorney General to prosecute this case. The previous two were Nana Akuffo-Addo, the current Foreign Minister and J. Ayikoi Otoo and they were all assisted by Mr. Agustines Obour, an Assistant State Attorney and other Chief State Attorneys.

In all seven witnesses were called by the prosecution while the defence team called one witness in the person of Mr. Francois Arnal, the Country Director of AFD.

There were also two court witnesses from the Merchant Bank Ghana Limited.