Abuga Pele on his way to the courtroom
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William
Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
The infamous Ghana Youth Employment and
Entrepreneurial Development Agency, GYEEDA scandal trial took a new twist
yesterday when the prosecution came to court to withdraw the earlier charges
preferred against two persons accused in the case.
Incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Chiana-Paga,
Abuga Pele and Philip Akpeena Assibit, Chief Executive Officer of Goodwill
International Group (GIG), are currently on trial at the Financial Court in
Accra for their various roles which the Attorney General’s Department says had
cost huge financial loss to the state.
Until last year, Abuga Pele was the National
Coordinator of National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), now the GYEEDA.
He is accused of willfully causing financial loss to
the state to the tune of GH¢3,330,568.53.
New Charges
In the new charges preferred by the AG, the NDC MP for
Chiana-Paga will face six counts of willfully causing financial loss to the
state under Section 179A (3) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 Act 29, two
counts of abetment under Sections 20(1) and 131(1) of the Criminal Offences
Act, 1960 (Act 29) and one count of intentionally misapplying public property,
contrary to Section 1(2) of the Public Property Protection Act, 1977 (SMCD)
140.
Mr. Assibit, who is the first accused person on the
other hand, is facing six counts of defrauding by false pretences contrary to
Section 131(1) of the Criminal and Offences Act 1960 (Act 29) and five counts
of dishonestly causing loss to public property contrary to Section 2(1) of the
Public Property Protection Act, 1977 (SMCD) 140.
In the first accused person’s case, the prosecution
says he defrauded the state of an amount equivalent to $1,948,626.68.
Prosecution’s
Business
The case commenced in earnest when the prosecution,
led by Principal State Attorney, Evelyn Keelson, told the packed court presided
over by Justice Afia Asare-Botwe that they were withdrawing the charges read in
court on January 24, 2014 to prefer fresh charges against the accused.
The judge obliged and the charges were withdrawn and
new ones preferred against the accused, but the prosecutor said “the facts of
the case remain the same.”
The accused persons then took turns to plead not
guilty to the 19 charges preferred against them.
The presiding judge,
after the facts had been read, said the accused persons should be in their former
bail bond, but later when the case was adjourned, the judge asked Mr. Assibit
to remain seated in the courtroom until the court closed while Abuga Pele left.
Daily Guide’s enquiries indicated that there were problems with Mr. Assibit’s bail
bond that had compelled the judge to ask him to sort it out but as at press
time, it was not clear whether he was asked to go home.
Game On
Immediately the charges were read, the prosecution
brought in Nuru Hamidan, Municipal Chief Executive of Asokore Mampong Municipal
Assembly in the Ashanti Region as their first Prosecution Witness (PW1).
He said he was a Deputy National Coordinator in-
charge of Operations and later Administration of the NYEP from 2009 to July
2013.
He said he reported directly to the National
Coordinator (Abuga Pele) whom he called “my boss” and said there were 10
regional coordinators and 197 district coordinators, all of whom reported to
the National Coordinator.
First
Contact
He told the court that his first contact with Assibit
was at a meeting called by GYEEDA management at the office of Abuga Pele saying,
“they were introduced to us as coming from Goodwill International Group and
Management Productivity Development Institute (MPDI).”
“They informed us that they can help us to expand the
youth employment modules and be able to create about one million jobs in ICT,
Agric and Housing.
“Our mandate is to create jobs and if we have a group
of people that can help us create the jobs, it was more or less good news to
the establishment,” the witness told the court.
He then explained to the court the NYEP (GYEEDA)
concept and said that when it was introduced there was what he called
traditional modules but in 2009, the government introduced what he again called
Public Private Partnership and that enabled private service providers to send
proposals for consideration under the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
He said the public private partnership was to place
emphasis on entrepreneurship modules to help in the training of the youth stressing
“management contracted service providers who trained people to have their own skills and also have
a component set up.”
“We received proposals from service providers almost
on a daily basis and the proposals are addressed to the Ministry of Youth and
Sports,” adding that they considered several factors before awarding contracts.
The witness told the court that the NYEP had what he
called exit programmes for its modules saying “before a service provider is
engaged all these issues are considered.”
He said in his time at NYEP he came across the Youth
Enterprise Development Project when Assibit and his team were introduced to the
management.
He said when it came to funding the project “Goodwill
International Group and MPDI said they will help us to secure funding and
introduced West Capital popularly called West Cap who said they will assist us
with funding.”
The MoU
“An MoU was signed between us (NYEP), West Cap and
Goodwill International Group,” adding “In fact I signed as a witness to that
MoU.”
He said as a result, he together with Abuga Pele and
others called on then Vice President John Dramani Mahama to introduce the idea
to the presidency and the Vice President said the World Bank had a similar
programme and asked them to contact the world financial giant.
The witness said from then on he was not involved in
the project but he later heard in one of their meetings that the World Bank was
happy and ready to fund the project.
The prosecutor then pulled out a document which was
the MoU purportedly signed on July 27, 2010 and which she asked the witness to
identify but did not tender in evidence and the court accepted it as an
identified item.
First
Objection
When the prosecution wanted to find out from the
witness whether there was any training programme in respect of the project,
Thaddeus Sory, counsel for Abuga Pele vehemently objected and cited Section 70
of the Evidence Decree on the grounds that it was a ‘leading question’.
After a back and forth argument, the judge overruled
the objection saying “I don’t see the source of the contention.”
The witness then recalled that there were a lot of
training programmes and at a point NYEP employed HND and Degree Holders to be
compiling data for them for the World Bank.
“I am aware they were recruited and trained and GYEEDA
paid for it in February 2011,” he said.
Defence Team
Raymond Bagnabu and Joseh Kpeim are representing
Assibit while Thaddeus Sory, Carl Adongo and Kwaku Nsiah-Asare are the defence
team of Abuga Pele.
Philip Akpeena Assibit - Middle
Facts Of The
Case
Mrs. Keelson narrated that in 2009, Abuga Pele was
appointed the National Co-ordinator of NYEP, a social intervention programme to
provide job opportunities to unemployed youth.
He was subsequently said to have been introduced to
Philip Akpeena Assibit somewhere in 2010, as someone who could help the NYEP
meet some of its objectives.
Soon after the meeting, Abuga Pele was said to have,
on behalf of the NYEP, entered into a MoU with GIG represented by Philip
Assibit.
Mrs. Keelson stated that contrary to the normal
practice, the MOU was signed on behalf of the NYEP by Abuga Pele without any
recourse to the then sector Minister, Akua Sena Dansua or the Attorney-General.
Under the MoU, the NYEP was described as the “Host”
and GIG as a “Strategic Partner”.
The parties, she said, agreed to “combine their
labour, properties and skills for the purpose of engaging in resource
mobilization, investor sourcing, management consulting, capacity building,
career development and training services among others.”
GIG was responsible for resource mobilization and
undertook to provide preliminary funds for the development of the programme.
The parties, according to the prosecutor, agreed to
share profits equally.
The prosecutor however noted that there was nothing on
record in terms of business proposals or documents forming the basis of
engaging GIG as a Strategic Partner.
Between May 2011 and May 2012, Assibit was said to
have made a number of payment claims for consultancy services allegedly
rendered to the NYEP.
These representations were noted to have been
supported by Mr. Pele, who used them as the basis for justifying, recommending
and approving a total amount of GH¢3,330,568.53, the equivalent of
$1,948,626.68, to Assibit.
Abuga Pele was alleged to have claimed that Assibit’s
work had directly resulted in a $65million World Bank facility for the NYEP.
The prosecutor however disclosed that all these
representations were false and that GIG was never appointed a consultant to
NYEP, while Assibit did not provide any exit plan and strategy for NYEP
modules.
Apart from that, he was also said not to have
conducted any financial engineering for the approval of a World Bank facility
of $65million since there had not been any approval by the World Bank for the
facility.
In August 2012, Assibit was said to have been paid an
additional GH¢835,000 under the guise of what was referred to as tracer studies
for the World Bank which he did not deserve.
Sitting continues today.
.JPG)
