Ms Mangowa Ghanney, a legal officer at the Legal Department of the Ministry Of Finance and Economic Planning, yesterday told the Accra Financial High Court that the former Attorney General (AG), Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, wrote to the Ministry on two occasions instructing them to make payments to Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
Ms Ghanney, the first witness to be called by the state prosecutors, in her evidence told the court that in March 2010 her Sector Minister referred a letter to her to follow up on. According to her, “The letter was from the AG, instructing the Ministry to pay a settlement amount to Mr Alfred Woyome.”
She said she prepared a memo to the Minister, with a summary of the AG’s letter which stated that two per cent of an amount should be paid to Mr Woyome. She added that she calculated the said percentage, which was a little over €22 million, and forwarded it to the Minister for his consideration and authorisation of payment.
Ms Cynthia Lamptey, principal state attorney, who led the evidence in court, asked Ms Ghanney if she made some observations when she was dealing with the letter. Ms Ghanney in her response told the court that she observed that there was no contract between the government and Mr Woyome after a quick glance through a folder she picked in her office.
She added that she also found a letter which stated that Mr Woyome was going to provide some services to the government and that the government had no obligation to pay him.
She further told the court that she did not give any advice in that regard in her memo to the Minister and that she had less than a day to work on the said letter, adding, “Even though there was no contract, other lawyers from the AG’s department and her office concluded that there was a basis for the payment.”
Ms Ghanney, however, told the court that the payment was not made due to a reverse made by the Minister and the questioning of the payment by a lady called Mary at the Treasury Department of the Ministry.
According to her, Mary told one Mrs Angela Herman, a legal officer with the Ministry, that she had discovered that two people were entitled to the payment – Astro Investment and Mr Woyome – and that she was not sure of whom to make the payment to and that aside that there was no record of any contract.
She told the court how she was called for the second time to handle a settlement with Mr Woyome and his lawyer in connection with a second letter from the AG instructing the Ministry of Finance to pay a default judgement dept of GH¢51 million to Mr Woyome.
She recounted how she, together with Mr Woyome and his lawyer, went to the Director of Budget, Mr S.P. Kyei, for the payment. She added that Mr Kyei told Mr Woyome that it would be impossible for the Ministry to pay the entire money at a go and suggested that the money would be paid in three instalments: GH¢17 million each to be paid over three months.
She told the court she remembered that Mr Woyome and his lawyers told the director that if the money was not paid in three months as promised they would make a demand for late payment.
Ms Ghanney in her cross-examination by the Defence Counsel, Mr Osafo Boabeng, said she believed the Ministry paid the entire amount to Mr Woyome and that until the default judgement debt no payments were made.
Mr Boabeng, who asked her if the payment was made in pursuance of the default judgement, she said she did not see the judgement, but it was contained in the letter Mrs Mould-Iddrisu wrote to the Ministry and that it was the AG who recommended that the payments be made to Mr Woyome.
Asked whether she was aware that the default judgement in question had been set aside, she said she had no personal knowledge, but got to know through the media and that she would be surprised if the payment were made while the judgement was set aside.
The trial judge, Justice John Ajet-Nasam, adjourned the case to June 14 for continuation.
Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome was re-arrested on June 5 and slapped with two fresh charges before the Accra Financial Court for defrauding by false pretence and causing financial loss to the state.
Mr Woyome, who pleaded not guilty to the fresh charges, was re-arrested minutes after he and his other three accomplices facing trial were discharged by the court due to a nolle prosequi filed by the state.
Mr Woyome was standing trial with three others – Chief State Attorney, Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh; his wife, Gifty Nerquaye-Tetteh, and Mr Paul Asimenu, a director at the Legal Department of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning – over a GH¢51 million judgement debt paid to him.
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