The prosecution, led by the Attorney General Hon. Godfred Dame, on Tuesday, 2nd July, 2024, concluded their cross examination of Richard Jakpa, the 3rd accused in the ongoing ambulance trial. Here are the relevant highlights of today’s proceedings:
- The Attorney-General asked Richard Jakpa, who had already admitted to being paid €700,000 under the Ambulance Contract, how much his principal, Big Sea General Trading LLC received as commission. Jakpa said he could not tell because he was not Big Sea.
- The Attorney-General then suggested to Richard Jakpa that if he as Agent, received 28.7% of the payment under the Ambulance contract (amounting to 700,000 Euros), then between himself (Jakpa) and his principal (Big Sea), they spent about 50% of the payment made by Government of Ghana under the Ambulance Contract. Hence the failure to supply proper ambulances to the State.
- Richard Jakpa claimed that the A-G’s assertion was not correct because according to him, the contract had received relevant approvals from Cabinet and Parliament.
- The A-G asked Jakpa to look at the Cabinet approval and Parliamentary approval and indicate where either Cabinet or Parliament approved the contract with Big Sea. Jakpa’s claim was shown to be false as he could not point to anything in both the Cabinet and Parliamentary approvals by which the Big Sea contract was approved. Both the Cabinet and Parliament approvals rather related to approval of a proposed Stanbic Bank facility which was never used.
- Richard Jakpa then stated that he was neither the Minister of Health nor Finance, and therefore, he could not be bothered as to why the contract was not approved by both Cabinet and Parliament.
- The Attorney-General indicated to Jakpa that the Ambulance Contract with Big Sea required Big Sea to supply only brand new ambulances and not to convert vehicles into ambulances. Jakpa disputed. The A-G asked Jakpa to go through the entire Ambulance Contract and point out where in the Ambulance Contract Big Sea was mandated to convert vehicles into ambulances. Richard Jakpa could not point to any provision in the contract by which Big Sea was empowered to convert vehicles into ambulances.
- Jakpa could not dispute the case of the prosecution that in clear breach of the payment terms of the contract, Big Sea was paid by the NDC government even before the first batch of the ambulances was supplied. This was because Hon. Ato Forson, as Deputy Finance Minister, had, without lawful authority, instructed that the LCs be established to pay for the ambulances.
- The prosecution established in court through Japka and with the aid of documentary evidence, that Madam Sherry Ayittey as Minister of Health under the Mahama administration, had at various times, written to Big Sea instructing them to stop supplying the vehicles because of the contractual issues and the fact that her Ministry had no money to establish the LCs.
- Also, Mr. Alex Segbefia, Minister of Health who succeeded Sherry Ayittey, also wrote two letters complaining about the vehicles as not fit for purpose as ambulances, after they arrived. In one of the letters written by Alex Segbefia to Big Sea, he described the vehicles as “ordinary vans”, which could not be converted into ambulances. Meanwhile, the contract required Big Sea to supply fresh functioning ambulances to Ghana and not ordinary vehicles which they would later attempt to convert into ambulances.
- It was again established in court more than two years after the vehicles were delivered (December, 2014), the NDC government could not convert them into ambulances before they exited office in 2017. The vehicles were left to rot at the Airforce base, because they were unsuitable to be converted into ambulances. Documents produced by the Attorney-General for Jakpa to read showed that the vehicles were ordinary vans incapable of being converted into functioning ambulances.
- Further to the above, it was clearly pointed out in court that contrary to Japka’s claim that Big Sea was authorized to convert the vans into ambulances, Big Sea was only licensed by the ISO to convert vehicles into ambulances in April 2015, whereas the contract with Big Sea was signed in 2012 and the vehicles delivered in 2014. Today, Jakpa was asked by the AG, Hon. Godfred to peruse his own documents and show to the court where Big Sea was specifically authorized to covert the vehicles into ambulances, but he could not.
- Japka consistently claimed that the legal advice from Hon. Dominic Ayine, in his capacity as deputy AG under the Mahama administration superseded the letters from Alex Segbefia and Shirley Ayittey, and that, the deputy AG’s advice gave validity to the contract in the manner it was executed. However, today, he was asked by the A-G to read the former Deputy AG’s advice [which is exhibit X] in open court and show where exactly the A-G asked either the Ministry of Health or the Minister for Finance to establish the LCs to pay for the ambulances. Yet again, Japka could not point to any part of the letter to support his allegations.
