Police Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Prempeh Mercer, the investigator in the trial involving Dr Stephen Opuni, former Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, and two others, has said the board and tender committee were unaware lithovit fertiliser was not tested.
He said the then Board Chairman, Mr Daniel Ohene Agyekum, and other board members, did not know that they were approving for COCOBOD to buy untested agrochemicals and fertilisers like lithovit follar fertiliser.
Chief Insp Prempeh, who was under cross-examination by Mr Samuel Cudjoe, Counsel for Dr Opuni, at Accra High Court, said, “Same applied to the Entity Tender Committee (ETC), they did not know the product they approved was not tested by the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG).”
When Mr Cudjoe asked the witness, whether during his investigations, he had received a statement from Mr Agyekum, he answered in the affirmative.
The witness explained that the statement was taken by the Economic and Organised Crime Office and it was part of the docket they took over as part of investigations.
Mr Cudjoe indicated that in the statement, Mr Agyekum stated that all purchases and contracts were duly approved by the board and the witness agreed.
The witness confirmed the statement of Mr Agyekum, which stated that all necessary rules and procedure for procurement of such products particularly chemicals and fertilizers were strictly adhered too.
Mr Cudjoe asked the investigator, whether during investigations, he requested for minutes of meetings from the committee, and he answered in the affirmative.
The counsel pointed to the witness that all the minutes indicated that the committee also gave approval for the purchase of lithovit follar fertiliser through sole sourcing, to which the witness agreed.
Chief Insp Prempeh explained that the Committee did not know at that time of approval that lithovit fertiliser had not been tested by CRIG.
The defence counsel tendered all the minutes from the meeting as evidence in their defense in respect to the approval and purchase of the lithovit liquid fertiliser with no objections.
Mr Cudjoe said all the documents including CRIG certification were taken to the Public Procurement Authority, which the witness agreed.
He said Dr Opuni did not deal with the technical issue but the witness disagreed, saying before the documents got to the Authority, it had to be signed by Dr Opuni and in so doing, Dr Opuni must be conversant with all the contents of the document before signing.
The witness said Dr Opuni in signing all the documents, regarding the procurement of lithovit, knew that the fertiliser from Agricult Ghana Limited had not been tested, so if he had signed the documents, it meant that he was fully aware.
Dr Opuni and Mr Agongo are facing 27 charges including defrauding by false pretences, willfully causing financial loss to the state, money laundering, corruption by public officer and contravention of the Public Procurement Act.
The case was adjourned to March, 11, 2021.
GNA