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Philip Akpeena Assibit, one of the accused persons in the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) case, wholly lifted a Serbian document from the Internet which he slightly altered and presented as Ghana’s Youth Employment and Development Strategy to the World Bank for a $65-million funding.

For originating that strategy document, he put in a claim for more than $2 million as service fee, which Mr Abuga Pele recommended he should be paid, the investigator in the GH¢4.1 million case, Mrs Diana Adu-Anane, told the Financial Division of the High Court yesterday.

Mrs Adu-Anane said as part of the investigative process, the committee googled the document and the results that came up showed that Mr Assibit had lifted the Serbian document from the Internet and only replaced ‘Serbia’ with ‘Ghana’ anywhere it occurred in the document.

“The document was word-for-word,” she told the court.

President Mahama originated the idea

She said the original idea to seek funding from the World Bank had been at the instance of President John Mahama, who was then the Vice-President, when the accused, in the company of others, visited the President’s office on funding-related matters.

She added that the Ministry of Youth and Sports had directed that the service fee be paid into the accounts of the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), pending the receipt of the World Bank funding, but Mr Assibit surreptitiously wrote a letter, on the letterhead of the MDPI, as a management consultant making demand for payment.

Following that, the money was paid in tranches into two accounts supposedly belonging to the MDPI, one with the Zenith Bank and the other with the UT Bank.

Led in evidence by a Chief State Attorney, Mrs Evelyn Keelson, Mrs Adu-Anane said both accounts were in the name of  Goodwill International Group (GIG) and the MDPI.

However, investigations later revealed that the MDPI had no knowledge of such an account and that Assibit was a signatory to both accounts and had used the name of one of his subordinates as a director.

Mrs Adu-Anane said the World Bank Country Office wrote officially to the investigative committee that no funding had been approved because the proposal that was presented by GYEEDA was still at the preparatory stage.

Background
The state has accused Assibit 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, resulting in the government parting with GH¢4.1 million.

Pele is alleged to have acted in a manner resulting in the loss of the amount to the state.

Pele has pleaded not guilty to two counts of abetment of crime and intentionally misapplying public property and five counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the state.

Assibit has also pleaded not guilty to six counts of defrauding by false pretence and five counts of dishonestly causing loss to public property. 

They are both on bail.

The court adjourned proceedings to April 14, 2015 to enable defence lawyers to cross-examine the investigator.