An exit plan was developed and launched – Witness
Mr Jacob Atule Adongo, a Director for Gender and Disability of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) on Monday told the Financial Court Division of the High Court that there was an exit plan developed by Goodwill International Group (GIG) and MDPI.
The Defence Witness in the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) in a cross-examination by Mrs Evelyn Keelson, a Senior State Attorney said the plan was develop and launched in his presence.
Mrs Keelson indicated that there was no single record of any exit plan prepared by GIG and MDPI presented in court by some witnesses in the case but the defence witnesses’ said the fact that the records were not presented in court does not mean the plan does not exist.
Mr Abuga Pele, the former National Co-ordinator of GYEEDA and Mr Philip Akpeena Assibit, a representative of GIG, are facing various charges of causing financial loss of GH¢4.1 million to the State.
Assibit is being accused of putting in false claims that he had secured a $65 million World Bank funding for the creation of one million jobs for the youth, which led government to part with GH¢4.1 million.
“So far us I know, there is an exit plan and l entreat EOCO to be the investigative body we want it to be,” he added.
He said EOCO should have find from the internal auditor of the Ministry of Youth and Sports why claims of such nature was paid.
He said if the work was not done then the Internal Auditor and, Chief Director should have assisted EOCO to find answers to these questions.
When asked that his claimed in his evidence in chief that Jamal Ahmed, a witness in the case was the one, who lead the 250 trainees to collect data for the NYEP was false, Mr Adongo said this assertion was completely untrue and that Jamal was the one, who led the group of consultants to supervise and train the people.
He said the training was to enable the people to gather data for the NYEP for its Youth enterprise development action plan, while Mohammed Pelpuo, another witness in the case and other staff of the Programme monitored the exercise.
“In fact, My Lord, Jamal had his office located in the premises of the NYEP at the office of resource mobilisation and project development, where he operates, so Jamal led the training of the 250 people,” he said.
The State Attorney pointed to the witness that, the training took place in February 2011 by which time, Jamal your supposed lead consultant was not in the employment of MDPI but the Witness said that would be strange because.
He said at all material times of the training, Jamal, am not too sure of when he was employed but he played a crucial role in the training.
The Defence Witness said Jamal was introduced to the management of NYEP by Dr Ahmed Shaibu Gariba of MDPI.
He said “My Lord l remember very well moving to monitor these training across the country and was paid per diem with other staff from GIG and from the budget of NYEP.
When asked, whether, the witness was aware that GIG was paid GH¢3, 000 directly to Philip, he said, GIG pre-funded almost of the activities before they were reimbursed by the State.
“I cannot confirm the payment made to Philip by Pelpuo, however, if they had run out of funds in the course of implementation, it will not be out of place to subvert them,” he said.
The State said no World Bank facility was secured for any work done by GIG/MDPI and that there were clear records to show but Mr Adongo disagreed.
On June 19, 2015 the Court ordered Philip and Pele to open their defence in respect of a GH¢4.1 million malfeasance case against them.
The order came after the Court had ruled that the State had established a prima facie case against the two, in respect of 19 counts of defrauding by false pretences, abetment of crime, dishonesty and intentionally misapplying public funds and willfully causing financial loss to the State.
Source: GNA