The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has clarified that he did not authorize payment for the said €2.37 million for the purchase of the ambulances.
According to him, his only job in the entire transaction was to request the issuance of LC (Letter of Credit) on the authority of the Minister of Finance.
“A letter of credit is letter from a bank guaranteeing that a buyer’s payment to a seller will be received on time and for the correct amount. In the event that the buyer is unable to make a payment on the purchase, the bank will be required to cover the full or remaining amount of the purchase”.
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson
Addressing journalist at a press briefing in Accra on Friday, December 24, 2021, Dr. Forson stated that he called the meeting for the singular purpose of responding to the news doing the rounds on social and mainstream media that certain charges have been levied against him by the Attorney General of the Republic, the Honourable Godfred Yeboah Dame.
“Though I am yet to be formally charged in court, I have seen copies of the charge sheet in the media and wish to say without any fear of contradiction that these charges are nothing but a frivolous and politically motivated attempt by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo and his hatchet man, the Attorney General, to silence me for performing my duties as the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of the Parliament of Ghana”.
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson
He assured his constituents and all Ghanaians that “I will not and cannot be silenced by the blatant abuse of prosecutorial powers by the Attorney General”.
Beginning of the investigations
Given details, Dr. Forson stated that the investigation into the purchase of the ambulances, which is the basis for these “frivolous charges”, started in somewhere 2017. In November 2017, he pointed out that a request was made to the then Speaker of Parliament, the Rt. Hon. Aaron Mike Ocquaye, for him to assist the Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) with their investigation into this matter.
“I provided a statement to the EOCO detailing my honest recollection of the transaction. Interestingly, nothing was heard of the investigation until November 2021, a period of four years, when I started raising concerns about the 2022 Budget and Economic Policy of the Government”.
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson
During this period, he stated that the Secretariat of the Rt. Honorable Speaker informed him that EOCO had requested him to be released to assist with further investigation into the purchase of the ambulances. He added that he was further informed that the Office of the Attorney General had requested that a charge statement be taken from him in preparation for formal charges to be filed against him.
“The coincidence speaks volumes about the motivation for these frivolous and baseless charges. A cursory reading of the frivolous and politically motivated charges shows that my only role in the entire transaction was to have signed a letter on behalf of the Minister of Finance, in my capacity as Deputy Finance Minister, for the establishment of letters of credit by the Bank of Ghana and for payment by the Controller Accountant General of the charges for the letters of credit”.
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson
Prosecution for requesting letters of credit
Dr. Forson questions the decision to prosecute him for requesting that letters of credit be established for the purchase of ambulances instead of the person who took the decision to leave the purchased ambulances to deteriorate.
“It is important to note that, whilst I am being prosecuted for my role in instructing that letters of credit be established for the purchase of ambulances for use in our health delivery system, the Attorney General does not see it fit to prosecute those who left the ambulances purchased with taxpayer money to rot while pregnant women are being carried on bicycles, aboboyaa, push trucks and okada bikes to hospitals all over the country to deliver the next generation of Ghanaians”.
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson
Dr. Forson noted that at the appropriate time, and in the course of the trial, “we will make available the full complement of documentation through the process of discovery”. He stressed that “not even a million prosecutions will stop us in our quest to ensure accountability and transparency in the management of our public finances”.
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