GYEEDA $65M WORLD BANK CASH WAS HOAX

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Saturday, October 11, 2014

 

Former Minister of Youth and Sports Clement Kofi Humado has said the announcement by government that $65million dollars had been secured for the Youth Enterprise Development project was a matter of ‘semantics’.

In the run up to the 2012 general election, the public was inundated with news that the NDC government was going to empower the youth with the World Bank facility but the sector minister told a Financial Court in Accra yesterday that the $65million never came as claimed.

“I was the minister on the ground and as far as I am concerned, no such facility was secured. No money was released to the Ministry of Finance for them to transmit it to Ministry of Youth and Sports. It remains a question of semantics,” he told the court presided over by Justice Afia Asare Botwe.

The court where Abuga Pele former National Coordinator of National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and Phillip Akpeena Assibit CEO of Goodwill International Group (GIG) are standing trial for causing financial loss to the state heard how cabinet on July 18, 2012 wrote a memo to the youth ministry, directing it to take steps to restructure the NYEP into YEEDA (now GYEEDA) because $65 million had been secured.

In the said memo signed by then Cabinet Secretary Ben Eghan, the government had suggested the name Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (YEEDA) in the restructuring exercise to give it a legal backing but it has since been referred to as Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA).

Raymond Bagnabu, counsel for Assibit pointed out to Mr. Humado who is the fourth Prosecution Witness (PW4) that even before the executive’s approval he had organized a press conference popularly called Meet-the-press on December 8, 2011 to announce the $65 million after which he tendered the statement in evidence through the witness.

Mr. Humado who is also MP for Anlo admitted making that statement but said he announced that the World Bank had ‘pledged’ $65 million for the YEDP and it had been facilitated by Management Development and Productivity Institute and Goodwill International Group (MDPI/GIG) consortium which the defense say was led by Assibit.

Give-and-take

Counsel (Mr. Bagnabu): So you confirm that you indeed announced that the World Bank has pledged $65 million?

Witness (Mr. Humado): Yes, but a pledge does not mean the money has arrived.

Counsel: At Peki Senior High School, you also delivered a brilliant speech and repeated that the World Bank has pledged $65 million.

Witness: The official position was that a grant of $65 million has been secured but one needs to reconcile with reality. As far as I knew as a minister, the $65 million had not been secured. The word ‘secured’ was a matter of interpretation.

Counsel: So you were deceiving the public then?

Witness: In my speech I said the World Bank had ‘pledged’ and in the Cabinet memo it was read ‘secured’ but as the minister on the ground I knew no money had been released...it was a matter of semantics.

Counsel: Was it a political statement?

Witness: It was not a political statement. It was reality.

Mr. Humado then told the court that it was the National Coordinator (Abuga Pele) who had made the contribution on the portion of his Meet-the-press statement about the World Bank facility but said “I bear the responsibility.”

He admitted that before the ministry’s letter to the Ministry of Finance requesting them to officially approach the World Bank for the facility the NYEP was already in consultation with the bank saying he knew they were working with the MDPI/GIG consortium.

When suggested to him by counsel that once the consortium worked on the YEDP preparatory document they were entitled to payment for work done, Mr. Humado said if “if the YEDP    was developed by the consortium then they are entitled to it.

Accused persons

The accused persons are on trial for the various roles they played, which the Attorney General’s Department said caused huge financial loss to the state.

The NDC MP is accused of wilfully causing financial loss to the state to the tune of GH¢3,330,568.53 while Assibit is being tried for defrauding the state of an amount equivalent to $1,948,626.68.

The two have pleaded not guilty and are currently on bail.

Charges                                               

The Chiana-Paga MP is facing six counts of wilfully 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) 1.

 

Sitting continues on October 27.