The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame has expressed his displeasure with the six-year trial of former COCOBOD CEO Stephen Opuni.
According to the Attorney-General, the failure of the court and judiciary to charge the former COCOBOD CEO is unacceptable. Long trials, he added, have an impact on the fight against corruption.
Dr. Opuni and Mr. Agongo, a businessman, are accused of defrauding the State by false pretences, wilfully causing financial loss to the State, money laundering, and corruption by a public officer in violation of the Public Procurement Act.
They have both pleaded not guilty to the charges and are being held on self-recognizance bail of GH300,000.00.
Godfred Dame, speaking to journalists in Accra, said that more complex cases are resolved quickly and that he is surprised that Opuni’s case has taken this long.
“We have witnessed the failure of the High Court to resolve the Opuni trial for the past six years. This is simply unacceptable. It is unacceptable for such a case to stay in court for six years when other more complex cases of murder are speedily resolved.
“This development deepens the injustice and inequity in our society and the judiciary clearly has to play its part and the judges also in the eradication of corruption.”
According to the state, Dr. Opuni conspired with Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Ltd in January 2014 to secure a GH43.1 million fertilizer contract despite knowing “at the time of making” the contract that the company could supply the fertilizer from Germany.
The allegedly German fertilizers were intended for the 2013/2014 farming season.
This strategy was used in two other contracts awarded during the three farming seasons from 2014 to 2016.
After a year in office, Dr. Opuni awarded a similar contract to the same supplier for the 2014/2015 farming season at a cost of GH75.3 million.
By the 2015/2016 farming season, the contract sum for fertilizer had risen to 98.9 million cedis.
This brings the total amount of payments in three years to 2.17 billion cedis, sums paid by COCOBOD, which in 2016 needed to raise a $1.8 billion loan to buy cocoa beans from farmers.
Contrary to the contractual agreement, which required Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Ltd to obtain fertilizers from Germany, the company manufactured the products locally.
The fertilizers were produced without registration, in violation of the Plants and Fertilizer Act of 2010.
These Lithovit Foliar fertilizers were then supplied to COCOBOD.
According to the state, Dr. Opuni agreed with the other two to wilfully cause financial loss to the state.
Contracts worth 43.1 million cedis and 75.1 million cedis were awarded through sole sourcing in 2014 and 2015. However, the state claims that the sole-sourcing procedure was not followed.
The 2014 contract was awarded without a price quotation, effectively handing over a blank check to the supplier.
According to state prosecutors, the Chief Executive also accepted a bribe of 25,000 cedis from Seidu Agongo in October 2014.
He would later lie to the Public Procurement Authority in order to ensure that Agricult Ghana received the contracts unfairly.
