Kwesi Botchway Jnr questions whether GHC49.1m in Adu-Boahene case was gov’t money
by Miss Naa · MyNewsGh.comA prominent young lawyer and member of the NPP communications and legal teams, Kwesi Botchway Jnr, has questioned the prosecution’s claim that the GH¢49.1 million at the centre of the Republic v. Kwabena Adu-Boahene and Others case was government money.
Former National Signals Bureau Director-General Kwabena Adu-Boahene and three other accused persons are on trial over the alleged misappropriation of the funds. They face 11 charges and have pleaded not guilty.
Mr Botchway said the Court of Appeal had ordered the Attorney General to provide evidence on the source of the funds after the prosecution alleged that the money belonged to the government.
He referred to the Public Financial Management Act and argued that government agencies do not operate accounts with private banks without the required authorisation.
The account in question, he said, was opened by the National Security Coordinator at Fidelity Bank, a private bank.
“If you are alleging that the monies in the private account belongs to the government of Ghana, you need to show authorisation that this is what the Controller said, that the coordinator should open this account and so this account is a public account,” he said on Metro TV.
Mr Botchway said the prosecution had not been able to produce such authorisation.
He also said the Court of Appeal had ordered the Attorney General to provide documents concerning the source and purpose of the money.
According to him, the prosecution had not established through documents that the funds were intended for the purchase of a cyber defence system.
“They haven’t been able to show that, you know, the memo or any company document surrounding the money was actually meant for the purchase of a cyber defence,” he said.
Mr Botchway therefore argued that the status and source of the GH¢49.1 million remained an important issue in the prosecution’s case.
Source: MyNewsGh.com
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