Investigator of NCA's alleged $ 4 million scandal testifies in court

One of the accused, William Tevie, former executive director of the NCA

The investigator in charge of the alleged $ 4 million scandal of the National Communications Authority (NCA) told the Accra High Court that one of the accused, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, admitted during his interrogations that all the defendants had benefited financially from the case..

Detective Chief Inspector Michael Nkrumah testified that Baffoe-Bonnie, a former NCA Board Chair, made the said statement when he (Baffoe-Bonnie) and two other accused persons, William Tevie, former director general of the NCA, and Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, former badistant national security coordinator, were invited to be interviewed at the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).

According to him, it was on the basis of the statement of the former chairman of the board of directors that the accused were charged with offense conspiracy to fly and fly.

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Detective Inspector Nkrumah made these comments during his testimony in chief last Thursday at the court presided over by m Judge Eric Kyei Baffour, sixth Prosecution witness.

Not guilty

Baffoe Bonnie, Tevie, Nana Owusu Ensaw, former member of the NCA Board of Directors; Alhaji Osman and a businessman, George Derek Oppong, are currently on trial for their alleged involvement in embezzling $ 4 million worth of public funds for the purchase of listening devices for national security, sponsored by the NCA.

The defendants have been charged with various counts of deliberately causing financial loss to the state, theft, conspiracy, money laundering, among others offenses.

They have pleaded not guilty to all charges and are currently on bail in the amount of one million dollars each.

"No copies of contracts at NCA"

Led by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mrs Yvonne Attakorah-Obuobisa, detective chief detective Nkrumah, also informed the court that during her investigations, Oppong had submitted two contracts to the BNI, namely the purchase contracts for the listening devices.

One of the contracts, he said, was signed by Tevie on behalf of NCA and Oppong on behalf of Inferlocks Development Limited (IDL), the local agent of NSO Technology Group Limited, the Israeli company that manufactures material, while the other contract was signed by Oppong and a representative of NSO.

He told the court, however, that his audit revealed that the NCA did not have a copy of both contracts.

The NCA Director of Legal Affairs, he said, also advised that although Tevie signed the contract on behalf of the NCA, the contract did not meet the NCA standard because no one had witnessed it.

"Further investigations also revealed that the Board did not approve the contract signed by Tevie on behalf of the NCA and that there was also no procurement process that allowed IDL to provide the equipment." -he adds.

Hearing continues on February 26, 2019.

The fact of the Prosecutor

The prosecution said that the previous government had turned over to an Israeli company, NSO Group Technology Limited, listening equipment at a cost of $ 6 million to allow the authorities to monitor the conversations of those suspected of being involved in terrorist activities.

A local agent, Infraloks Development Limited, charged $ 2 million to facilitate the transaction, bringing the total to $ 8 million.

The facts indicated that national security did not have the money to finance the transaction. reason the NCA, who was responsible for overseeing the use of this equipment, was asked to fund the project.

He added that $ 4 million had been withdrawn from the NCA account, while one million dollars on the amount withdrawn had been deposited in the account of the Israeli company.

According to the prosecution, the remaining $ 3 million was paid into Oppong's account, which acted as a representative of local agents Infraloks Development Ltd.

The prosecution alleged that Osman had conducted the case in its entirety.

The defendants then laundered the amount for their benefit.

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