GYEEDA trial: I was suspicious of Assibit- Humado

The former Youth and Sports Minister, Clement Kofi Humado says he was suspicious of payments made to the Chief Executive of Goodwill International Group (GIG), Philip Akpeena Assibit, who has been accused of defrauding the state.

Humado who appeared as prosecution witness, said his suspicions were raised when Assibit brought a letter requesting an amount of $835,000, being payment for tracer studies.

Assibit was acting as consultant to the National Youth Employment Programme, now Ghana Youth employment Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA), for the procurement of a $65 million loan from the World Bank for activities by GYEEDA.

His company, together with Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) acted as a consortium for the procurement of the loan.

According to Humado, he received a memo from Abuga Pele requesting the payment of some $2 million to be paid to the consortium to defray the cost of a feasibility study and other transactions for the procurement of the World Bank loan.

That memo came with an invoice signed by Assibit, Humado testified.

He further stated that he authorised the payment of that money only for Assibit to bring another letter dated September, 3, 2013 requesting for another sum of money worth over 800,000 cedis.

That letter was signed by Assibit but on a different letter head, Humado testified.

He said he was curious and found it strange that the second request was not part of the earlier agreement that was brought by Pele in the very first letter.

He further stated that the second letter was brought to him directly and therefore asked Assibit to go back and seek approval from the National Coordinator, Abuga Pele.

Kofi Humado said he later received another memo from Abuga Pele confirming the budget as brought by Assibit.

The former Sports Minister said he had to minute the request to the Chief Director at the Finance Ministry for a separate procurement to be made.

He said he did not receive a report from the Chief Director before he was moved from the ministry.