A former Board Secretary of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), Kofi Boakye has testified that the Board did not approved the SkyTrain project. 

During my tenure as a member of the Board, we approved several projects however, the Board did not approve the Sky Train project.

"Additionally, the Board did not approve the $2 million payment,” Mr Boakye who is the second prosecution witness stated in his evidence-in-chief which was adopted today (Feb 11) in the trial in which Solomon Asamoah and Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, a former Board Chairman of GIIF have been accused of conspiring to cause financial loss of $2 million for building the Sky Train system which was never built.

The former Board Secretary, who is also a lawyer by profession, said at one of GIIF’s meetings, Mr Asamoah, informed the Board that he travelled to South Africa as a member of a government delegation to a summit where a certain group made presentations on the Sky train Project.

The witness stated that Mr Asamoah further informed the Board that the government delegation that attended the Annual Investment Forum in South Africa had decided that GIIF partake in the project, adding that the Board also expressed its desire to partake in the project.

Following this, he said a presentation was made to the Investment and Financing Committee of GIIF.

“During my tenure as a member of the Board, we approved several projects; however, the Board did not approve the Sky Train project.

Additionally, the Board did not approve the $2,000,000.00 payment for the acquisition of shares in relation to the Sky Project,” he said. 

Cross-examination

Under cross-examination by Victoria Barh, who is counsel for Mr Asamoah, it was suggested to the witness that, but for his independent explanation or clarification to the Company Secretary who took over from him, that particular secretary and a Chief Accountant had understood that there was a sentence in an existing document that indicated the board’s approval of the SkyTrain project.

In his response, the witness told the court that his evidence was that the secretary who took over from him told him that, at all times, he (witness) made it clear to the secretary that the Sky Train was never approved.

She (new secretary) drew my attention to the evidence there, and my response was that that statement did not constitute an approval. The CEO had referred to that memo as a record of the minutes of the approval of the SkyTrain project.

This happened when the management team of GIIF appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament,” he said.

Source: Graphiconline