Kofi Boakye, a former Board Member of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), says the Board never approved the Sky Train Project nor authorised any payment for the acquisition of project-related shares.
Mr Boakye, a native of Atimatim in the Ashanti Region, told an Accra. High Court, on which he served on the Board of GIIF from 2017 to 2021, and also acted as Board Secretary until a substantive secretary was appointed in March 2019.
He gave his evidence-in-chief in the trial involving Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, the former Board Chairman of GIIF, and Mr Solomon Asamoah, the former Chief Executive Officer of GIIF.
They have been charged with willfully causing financial loss to the State, intentional dissipation of public funds, and conspiracy to commit crime.
The Former Board Chairman was granted bail in the sum of GH¢10 million, with two sureties, one of whom must be justified by landed property in Greater Accra.
Mr Asamoah was also granted GH₵15 million bail with two sureties, all to be secured by a registered land or property located in the Greater Accra Region.
The former Board Secretary confirmed that the Sky Train Project was among several projects presented to the Board during his tenure.
He said that at one of the Board meetings, the then Chief Executive Officer of GIIF, Mr Asamoah, informed members that he had travelled to South Africa as part of a Government delegation to a summit at which presentations were made on the Sky Train Project.
Mr Boakye said the CEO further told the Board that the government delegation, which attended the Annual Investment Forum in South Africa, had decided that the Fund should participate in the project, a position the Board also expressed interest in.
He said that, following these developments, a presentation was made to the Fund’s Investment and Financing Committee.
However, Mr Boakye said that although the Board approved several projects during his tenure, it did not approve the Sky Train Project.
He further told the court that the Board also did not approve the US$2 million payment for the acquisition of shares in relation to the Sky Train Project.
Mr Boakye added that all relevant information concerning the project had been duly captured in the Board’s minutes.
The Court, presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, adjourned to February 17 for the Defence to continue cross-examining the witness.
The Accra SkyTrain project was a proposed elevated light rail system intended to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution in Accra, Ghana’s capital.
In 2018, the Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the AiSky Train Consortium of South Africa.
Following the completion of a feasibility study in November 2019, the parties signed a Build-Operate-Transfer concession agreement.
The company was to develop the system at an estimated cost of $2.6 billion with a capacity of 10,000 passengers/hour/direction.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com
