Sipa Yankey's lawyers move to clear his name
Lawyers of former Health Minister Dr George Sipa-Adjah Yankey, have begun the process of getting their client's name cleared of the bribery case involving the British firm, Mabey and Johnson (M&J).
Bates Wells and Braithwaite, a London-based firm, and Kwame Gyan and Associates, an Accra-based firm of solicitors, both representing Dr Yankey, began their formal intervention in the case by getting the UK SFO to establish that their client had never been found guilty and convicted of any act of malfeasance involving the UK construction firm.
Following correspondence between the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) of the United Kingdom (copies of which are available to the Daily Graphic) and the lawyers, the SFO conceded that since Dr Yankey was not before the court as a defendant, he could, therefore, not have been charged and convicted by the court.
In a letter dated October 28, 2009 and signed by Mr. Richard Alderman, the Director of the UK SFO, to Dr Yankey through his solicitors, the SFO said, "The hearing before the judge at Southwark Crown Court proceeded on the basis of pleas of guilty by the company (Mabey & Johnson) and agreement about the facts. Your client was not before the court as defendant."
The clarification of the SFO followed representations made to it by Bates Wills and Braithwaite on behalf of Dr Yankey.
The move is to inform further legal action on the matter and against the SFO following reports in Ghana of the citing of Dr Yankey and other Ghanaian public officials in the bribery case involving M&J.
In further response to the queries of Dr Yankey's solicitors regarding whether the said allegations against their client were ever tested, substantiated or corroborated by anyone before the court, the SFO affirmed that the allegations had neither been tested nor substantiated and that that had not been necessary because of the guilty plea of M&J before the court.
On that subject, Mr Alderman, in a letter to Dr Yankey's solicitors, dated November 2, 2009, wrote, "I can confirm that the hearing proceeded on the basis of facts agreed between the prosecution and the defence. There was no oral evidence leading to a determination of the facts by the judge."
According to the SFO, it was officials of Mabey & Johnson who had been before the court and whose case the SFO had been interested in and, accordingly, pursued, not Dr Yankey and others, and, therefore, the guilty plea which M&J officials had entered before the court made it unnecessary for them to pursue the matter further.
In the earlier correspondence with the SFO, Dr Yankey's solicitors had averred that at the time the transaction was alleged to have taken place, their client was the Director of the Legal and Private Sector Department at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and not the Director of Legal and International Affairs, as stated in the case before the court, as no such position even existed at the Finance Ministry at that time.
"In that capacity our client had no involvement in or capacity to influence the securing or maintaining of contracts for the building of roads and bridges in Ghana by M&J. During the times specified, the Minister of Roads and Highways had the power to award contracts for roads and bridges. Certainly, there would not have been any basis for M&J to have sought to bribe our client for the purposes of procuring such contracts," Dr Yankey's solicitors contended.
The solicitors further indicated that at no time was Dr Yankey approached or consulted in respect of the allegations made in the referenced documents before the court, nor had he ever been given the opportunity to defend himself or to provide evidence to the prosecuting authorities, the court or M&J in respect of the said allegations which were intended to unjustifiably injure and damage his hard-won image and reputation.
"These allegations have been made without any prior reference to him and in circumstances which give him no opportunity of responding to them, contrary to the rules of natural justice," Dr Yankey's counsel argued.
"Therefore, there was no question of there having been any finding by the court in respect of the allegations made against our client. Had he been on trial, which he was not, then he would have been able to address these allegations," they further contended.
"Our client is seriously concerned about the effect these references are having on his reputation if they are left unaddressed. Indeed, so seriously does he take this matter that our client who, until recently, was the Minister of Health in the Ghanaian Government, has resigned his position to clear his name in respect of the above allegations ," the solicitors said.
In the wake of the UK court conviction of M&J and the linkage of those allegations with Dr Yankey and others, the minister relinquished his position in order to clear his name.
Listen to of Dr Yankey's lawyers, Kwame Gyan speaking to Joy FM's Super Morning Show host Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah on the developments.