Attorney General (AG) Godfred Yeboah Dame concluded his cross-examination of the third accused, Richard Jakpa, in the Fake Ambulance Trial on Tuesday, 2 July 2024.
Minority Leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson and businessman Richard Jakpa are on trial for causing financial loss to the State over the procurement of about thirty ambulances that were deemed to be unfit for purpose.
Godfred Dame was back in charge of the case after the rigmarole that threatened the trial over a recorded conversation between the third accused and the AG.
Attorney General’s tactics
It was quite obvious that the Attorney General had tactically maneuvered his way around the judge’s advise to recuse himself from the case by tactically allowing other persons from his Office, specifically, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mrs Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, and the Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah, cross-examine Richard Jakpa on the wild allegations made against Attorney General.
He had sidestepped the minefield and re-entered the case when issues bothering on his conversations with Jakpa had been sufficiently dealt with. The Attorney General sprang to his feet and went face to face with the man who had thrown mud against him without emotion and any form of drama.
While the expectation was that Jakpa could spew wilder allegations against him, the AG firmly established his group in the cross-examination, making Jakpa uncomfortable and aggressive during the process.
The AG’s unrivalled skill in cross-examination was evident as all the drama of the past few weeks faded away in court to alienate the bare facts of the case. Here are the top six admissions or defence Jakpa made under cross-examination by Godfred Dame on the substance of why Jakpa has been charged.
1. Jakpa and Big Sea took more than 50 % of the cost of the Ambulances as profit
The Attorney General suggested to Jakpa that if he as the agent pocketed €700,000 representing 28.4 % of the cost of the ambulances (2.37 million Euros) as his share of the deal then, between him and his principal they must have taken more than 50% and that is why they could not supply genuine ambulances as specified under the contract.
Jakpa denied this assertion and said that Big Sea had rather swallowed more cost than necessary because they wanted to maintain the relationship with the Government of Ghana. Jakpa then made the admission that the vehicles they supplied were not the ones specified in the contract. The contract specification was for a Mercedes Benz 309 Sprinter model.
Jakpa disclosed that Big Sea took the liberty to vary the specification to a Mercedes Benz 311 model because, by the time the contract was being performed, the manufacturing of 309s had been stopped by Mercedes Benz. So Big Sea on their own volition brought into the country the Model 311 which, according to Jakpa, was more spacious.
Jakpa stated that they hoped to recoup the difference in cost from the maintenance of the vehicles. It was suggested by the Attorney General in the end that, this was the real reason for the failure to convert the `buses into an ambulance – Jakpa and his principals, Big Sea, had brought into the country vehicles not specified, not convertible into ambulances and thus under not functional or fit for purpose.
2. The Ambulance contract with Big Sea General Trading LLC itself did not receive either cabinet or parliamentary approval.
The fulcrum of the “Fake Ambulance Trial” has been the approvals that were given for financing the purchase of the ambulances. The original means of financing approved by Parliament was to procure the ambulances with a loan from Stanbic Bank.
However, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson broke ranks with the parliamentary approval and authorised the vehicles to be paid through the establishment of Letters of Credit (LCs) charged to the account of the Ministry of Health. This financing option according to the Attorney General was contrary to both the cabinet and parliamentary approvals.
Further, the business contract with Big Sea being a foreign company (Dubai-based company), should have received parliamentary approval for it to be valid and before any payment would be made. This contract was never sent to either Cabinet or Parliament and certainly, did not receive parliamentary approval.
Under cross-examination and confronted with the lack of approvals, Jakpa said he was neither in government nor in Parliament and therefore did not know how the two bodies handled their communication on approvals. Meanwhile, the Businessman had claimed that both parliament and cabinet had fully approved the purchase of the ambulances. He attributed the duty to ensure that the proper thing was done to the Finance Minister and Health Minister of the day.
3. Sherry Ayittey, Seth Terkper and Alex Segbefia’s non-approval of the ambulance deal and supply of defective ambulances.
The Attorney General confronted Mr Jakpa with letters from two former Ministers of Health in the NDC government who had a dim view of the contract and the way it was performed by Big Sea.
Madam Sherry Aryittey (now deceased) wrote to Big Sea to stop producing the ambulances because the delivery time had elapsed. Even though the contract was signed in 2012 and should have been fully performed by November 2013, not a single ambulance had been delivered at the time.
Sherry therefore sought to direct Big Sea to stop producing the ambulances after the time allowed under the agreement. His successor Alex Segbefia in May 2015 and January 2016, also wrote 2 letters casting a bad view of the ambulances that had been supplied in 2014, stating that they were “ordinary vans” and could not be converted into ambulances.
Confronted with these two letters, Jakpa described both as irrelevant to the case because the Attorney General’s Opinion delivered in 2014 had said that Sherry Aryittey did not have the right to terminate the contract and had rather instructed the Minister to perform the contract by its terms.
The warning signal by the Ministers in the NDC Government were ignored by the 1st accused, Ato Forson, in paying for the ambulances despite the reservations of the Minister for Health whose Ministry was going to use the ambulances as well as the stipulations of the contract.
4. The 2014 Attorney General opinion did not vary the terms of the contract.
Interestingly, the 2014 Attorney General‘s opinion, as read in court by Richard Jakpa under a question by the AG, only spoke about a Stanbic Bank loan which had been approved by both Cabinet and Parliament and not the agreement with Big Sea or the means of financing for that agreement, which was irrevocable Letters of Credit.
Richard Jakpa could not point to anything in the 2014 Attorney General opinion that mandated the Ministry of Finance to establish the irrevocable letters of credit utilised to pay for the ambulances. Jakpa eventually told the court that he could not tell why the Finance Minister of Finance at the time, Seth Terkper did not comply with the full details of the AG’s directive. “I am not Seth Terkper and cannot answer this question,” he said.
5. Fresh ambulances were required to be supplied under the agreement and not ordinary vehicles to be converted to ordinary vans.
The Attorney General established that the contract did not anticipate any conversion of ordinary vans into ambulances. He suggested to Jakpa that all the contract had asked for was fresh ambulances and not cars that were seeking to be converted into ambulances.
Jakpa disputed this and went into an annexure of the contract titled “Specification of Conversion of Ambulance”. The Attorney General pointed out to Jakpa that, the annexure only contained specifications of the external finishing of the vehicles and only listed the parts of the vehicles that were required in the outward fittings of the vehicles that would make it an ambulance.
There was no provision anywhere in the contract on how the vehicles would be converted into an ambulance. In any case, if the contract had anticipated a conversion, then where and how would have been stated clearly in the contract. Despite Jakpa’s insistence, he could not indicate any provision in the contract specifying how the vehicles were to be converted into ambulances.
6. Ambulances were to be parked not used
The Attorney General indicated to Richard Jakpa that the vehicles were in the country for over two years from when the ambulances started arriving in Ghana in December 2014 until when the NDC exited office in January 2017.
All this while, the defective ambulances could not be converted into fit and proper ambulances for the country’s use despite having paid 2.3 million Euros. Jakpa after debating the timeline of two years and eventually succumbing to it, said the ambulances were not meant to be used.
To him, they were to be parked because they had not yet been handed over to the rightful authorities. He further asserted that even the post-delivery inspection which concluded that the ambulances were ordinary vans and unfit for their function was done mischievously. There was a letter that the ambulances were to be parked until personnel were trained and handed over to the Ministry of Health.
The case has been adjourned Thursday, 11 July 2024 for Richard to call his first defence witness. His lawyer indicated that the witness, an official of Big Seas and he will testify on behalf of Richard Jakpa.
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