By William
Yaw Owusu
Thursday
March 1, 2018
It has emerged that former deputy Attorney General,
Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, was a director of the company that was used to
defraud the state of millions of dollars in the Ghana Youth Employment and
Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) scandal.
The company, Goodwill International Group (GIG), belongs
to Phillip Akpeena Assibit - who was jailed 12 years alongside former
opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Chiana Paga Abuga Pele - who
also received a six-year imprisonment term last Friday.
Pele’s
Defence
Dr. Ayine’s name popped up because incarcerated
Abuga Pele, then National Coordinator of the National Youth Employment
Programme (NYEP) which the NDC changed to GYEEDA, and has now become Youth
Employment Agency (YEA), had used GIG in his defence.
According to a document tendered in evidence by
Abuga Pele to justify the NYEP’s dealings with GIG, Dr. Ayine, currently NDC MP
for Bolgatanga East, was number five on the list of directors of GIG.
Other directors listed include Jean Claude C.
Voucher, Benjamin A. Kassim, John Dadzie Mensah, Professor Alice Nyamengale,
Sandra Ofori Ameyaw and Nii Otu Akwetey IX, described as Katamanso chief.
Reputable
Organization
Abuga Pele had listed the names of the directors of
the company to prove to the court that GIG is a reputable private company,
backed by high-profile officials; and the NYEP was not wrong in dealing with
them, but the trial judge, Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, did not buy that
argument.
At page 45 of the 53-page judgement, the judge said,
“He (Abuga Pele) states that due diligence was done by NYEP officials to the
MDPI where they saw that GIG worked in close collaboration with the MDPI and
they also found that GIG had very high-profile officials and that they were
particularly interested in the officers and directors of the company to enable us
determine the nature of the company they were dealing with and also their
experience profile.”
The court further held that Abuga Pele, who was the
2nd accused person “also goes at great pains to show that he has
approvals from the payments that were made and has explained at length the
ceiling that was imposed on NYEP by the Minister of Youth and Sports and as
well as the payment plans as far as financial management is concerned.”
Court
Sentence
In the final analysis, the court sentenced the former NDC MP to six years’ imprisonment for abetment
and another four years for causing financial loss to the state, but said all
should run currently.
Assibit on the other hand, was sentenced to twelve years for
defrauding by false pretences, four years for abetment and another three years
for dishonestly causing financial loss to the state.
Assibit’s Assets
The court also ordered the state to recover any assets of Asibit
equivalent to the sum of $1,948,626.65, which he fraudulently received from the
state.
Specific
Charges
On the charge sheet presented by the Attorney
General’s Department at the beginning of the trial in February 2014, the two
men were facing a total of 19 counts ranging from defrauding by false pretences
to willfully causing loss to the state.
Assibit alone was charged with six counts of
defrauding by false pretences to the tune of $2.028,605.20 and another five
counts of dishonestly causing loss to public property to the tune of
GH¢3.305,568.53.
Abuga Pele was charged with two counts of abetment,
one count of intentionally misapplying public property and five counts of
willfully causing financial loss to the state - all to the tune of
GH¢3.305,568.53.
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