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Peter Osei Amoako, the sixth prosecution witness in the trial involving Dr. Stephen Opuni and two others, says that COCOBOD responded with a letter to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) confirming the value-for-money audit.
He said: “I only saw the letter, I have no records of the audit report itself.”
Amoako, in his chief test led by Ms. Evelyn Keelson, Chief State’s Attorney, explaining how the 2013/2014 hiring was done, said that a letter from former COCOBOD CEO Dr. Opuni was sent to Cabinet through from the Ministry of Finance to Purchase Lithovit liquid fertilizer.
He said that after that letter, the CEO sent another letter to the Minister of Finance.
“After that, the former CEO applied for a quote from the company Agricult Ghana Limited for the acquisition of lithovit liquid fertilizer,” he added.
He said that after the listing, a letter was sent to PPA requesting approval to obtain 700,000 liters of lithovit liquid fertilizer at a cost of $ 19.5 million.
The witness said a response was received from the PPA requesting COCOBOD to do a value for money audit and the Board responded with a letter confirming the value for money audit.
He said that PPA responded with the approval of COCOBOD to acquire lithovit liquid fertilizer.
Amoako, who is COCOBOD’s Chief Financial Officer, said that based on the records, there was a CRIG certificate dated January 22, 2014, valid until December 31, 2014.
He said that after the approval of the PPA, the CEO of COCOBOD signed an award notice to Agricult Ghana Limited.
He said the company then submitted a performance guarantee and, based on the acceptance of the guarantee, the contract was signed between COCOBOD by the CEO and the company’s Managing Director.
The witness said that the company supplied 700,000 liters of lithovit liquid fertilizer, of which an inspection was carried out with all the necessary documents attached and the approval granted.
At this stage, the State delivered the two letters mentioned by the witness in a public hearing, explaining that after diligent efforts to procure the original, they were unsuccessful but they wanted to deliver the photocopy with the court’s permission.
There were no objections from other parties.
Amoako said that as Chief Financial Officer, he had oversight responsibility for the financial activities of corporate headquarters, subsidiaries, divisions and units and this involves maintaining financial records for COCOBOD.
He said that he made transaction payments, funds management, bank reconciliations, managed stores, took insurance of landed and mobile properties, person in charge of taxation, person in charge of budget preparation, person in charge of debt recovery, payroll and salaries, person in charge of the unit of acquisitions and management of funds from divisions and subsidiaries.
Regarding what constituted the COCOBOD Finance Department, the witness said that it was made up of reports and financial assurance, cash, reconciliation unit, disbursement unit, warehouses, insurance, taxation, product financing, debt recovery, stock control , payroll, invoices, and the procurement unit.
When asked who was the official custodian of COCOBOD’s financial records, Amoako said that COCOBOD’s financial records were in the hands of the Finance Director of the Finance Unit.
The witness said that until November 2018, all procurement records were under the Finance Department, but the procurement unit was elevated to a Department with a Director-in-Charge.
He said that currently the Director of Procurement was on leave and “I have been assigned additional responsibility for the procurement unit, so all procurement documents are now under the supervision of the Director of Finance.”
When asked to explain how the procurement process was generally conducted at COCOBOD, he told the Board that the procurement processes started with the preparation of budgets.
He said the budgets were prepared by various units and consolidated as a single budget for the entire institution, after which they were forwarded to the Board for approval.
He said that the consolidated budget was then forwarded to the Board’s Finance Committee for discussion, where the Committee would prepare its report based on the budget and present it to the Board for approval.
He said that once the budget was approved, the procurement plan was taken from the budget; the plan was also submitted to the Board for its consideration and approval.
“The Board will then forward the procurement plan to the Board’s procurement committee for discussion,” he said.
The witness said that the Procurement Committee would prepare its report and resubmit it to the Board for approval and once the plan was approved, the plan was posted on the PPA website.
He said that in the procurement plan, there would be various items and procurement methods and depending on the time, COCOBOD would now initiate the processes for the procurement of the plan elements.
Amoako said that depending on the method, it could be a single supplier, restrictive bidding, national or international competitive bidding.
“Whatever the method, we will invite suppliers to submit bids for any good or service, then PPA approval will be sought,” he added.
He reported that once PPA had granted approval, COCOBOD would issue an award notification to the supplier and the supplier based on the notification, they would present a performance guarantee.
The Director of Finance maintained that once the performance guarantee was accepted by the Legal Department, a contract was prepared between COCOBOD and the supplier and the supplier would now fulfill the contract.
He said that after delivery, COCOBOD would inspect the goods or services based on the signed contract and once everything was authenticated by the COCOBOD inspection team, the payment processes were initiated by the supplier presenting an invoice requesting payment.
He said that all necessary documents would be attached and sent to audit for investigation and any payment in excess of ¢ 10,000 GH would be sent to the CEO for approval before making the payment.
He said that in the case of fertilizer, although the fertilizer went through the same budgeting processes, before being purchased, it had to be tested for a minimum of two years at the Ghana Cocoa Research Institute (CRIG).
He said that once it went through the testing regime, CRIG issued a report and sent it to the CEO for approval, and once the report was approved, CRIG issued a certificate to the supplier valid for one year.
“Once these processes are complete, COCOBOD will now consider that particular fertilizer as part of the list of fertilizers to be purchased,” he added.
He said that based on this agreement, suppliers would be asked to submit quotes, where the CEO would now send a letter to PPA to obtain those fertilizers exclusively.
The witness said that once approval was granted, an approval notice was issued to vendors. Suppliers would then submit performance guarantees, where they would be reviewed and approved by the Legal Department.
He said that “now that the contracts have been established between COCOBOD and the supplier with the signature of the parties, the supplier must fulfill its part by delivering the merchandise to COCOBOD.”
He said that upon delivery, an inspection team would inspect the fertilizers based on the signed contract and a report generated by the team. The supplier will initiate payment by sending an invoice to COCOBOD.
“All necessary documentation will be sent to the audit for their background check with the recommendation of the audit unit for approval and payment,” he said.
He said that it was at this stage that the “CEO gives approval for the bill to be processed.”
Dr. Opuni and Mr. Agongo face 27 charges, which include defrauding with false pretenses, deliberately causing financial losses to the state, money laundering, corruption by a public official, and violation of the Public Procurement Law.
Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges and are on self-recognition bond of ¢ 300,000.00 GH each.
The case was postponed until November 9, 2020 for its continuation.
Source: GNA
