NCA trial: ‘Procurement process did not conform to standard practice’

The Director of Legal Service of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Mrs Abena Asafu-Adjei, on Tuesday told the Accra High Court that the contract of the former Director-General of the authority signed for the procurement of $4 million communications gadgets did not conform to the standard practice of procurement process.

She said William Matthew Tetteh Tevie signed the contract for the NCA without it being witnessed by the Director of Legal Service of the authority, a practice that breached the standard procurement practice.

She added that instead of Mr Tevie signing the contract for the NCA, he rather signed the contract for the National Communication agent and, therefore, denied that the contract ever emanated from NCA’s legal division that drafted all contracts for the authority.

She said though she was not at the Legal Division at the time the contract was signed, after she was appointed as a Legal Director of the NCA, she took custody of all legal contracts and “if this contract signed by the former Director-General was there I would have seen it.”

Prosecution witness

Answering questions during a       cross-examination as the first prosecution witness from the counsel of the five accused persons, Mrs Asafu-Adjei said the first time she saw the contract covering the purchase of the communication gadgets was when the investigator of the case produced a document to that effect during the trial of the case.

“The NCA has nothing to do with the contract until a document pertaining to the contract came up in the trials,” she told the court, presided over by Mr Justice Eric Kyei Baffour.

Accused persons

The former Director-General, Tevie; a former Board Chair of the NCA, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie and two board members, Nana Owusu Ensaw, Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman and a businessman, George Derek Oppong respectively, have been accused of playing various roles leading to the loss of $4 million to the state.

The five, who were all in court yesterday, are accused of engaging in infractions in the procurement of listening devices for the state. They are facing four counts of conspiracy to wilfully cause financial loss to the state, wilfully causing financial loss to the state and conspiracy to steal.

They have also been accused of acting jointly to misapply $4 million belonging to the state and each been granted a $1 million bail, with three sureties.

The court has directed the accused persons to surrender their passports to the registrar of the court.

No contract

Mrs Asafu-Adjei said though the former Director-General could sign contracts for and on behalf of the NCA such contracts were subject to the board’s approval.

Normally, she said, copies of contracts approved and signed were always picked from the legal office after it had been made known to the board of NCA, according to regulation and good corporate governance.

Mrs Asafu-Adjei also pointed out that there was no contract prepared between the NCA and Infraloks Development Limited (IDL), a local agent, saying: “I would have seen this contract as a legal officer if it had been prepared.”

 She said she had been with the NCA since June 2003, explaining that the core mandate of the authority was to assign licences, frequencies and regulation of communication space of various telecommunication operators.

“We monitor the quality of service, monitor network of various communication providers and compliance with licence conditions,” she said, and denied that the NCA was mandated to monitor cyber security in Ghana.

She also blatantly denied ever referring to the monitoring of cyber security as one of the core functions of the NCA during her evidence in chief, stating that the authority only undertook cyber surveillance of personal data by assigning frequency and authorisation to telcos.

“The NCA recently set up cyber unit which gives it an oversight over what communication service providers do,” she said, adding that issues of cyber security were the responsibility of the Ministry of Communications.

Answering a question on the establishment of committees by the NCA to perform functions of the boards on its behalf, Mrs Asafu-Adjei said the NCA Act provided for the board to set up committees as part of management but the Act did not require the committees to take over the functions of the board, including the signing of contracts.

Facts of the case

According to the facts of the case, Baffoe-Bonnie, Tevie and Osman, a former Deputy National Security Coordinator, were allegedly aided by a private citizen, Oppong, to engage in the offence.

It is the case of the state that the previous administration had contracted an Israeli company, NSO Group Technology Limited, to supply listening equipment at a cost of $6 million to enable the authorities to monitor conversations of persons suspected to be engaged in terror activities.

A local agent, Infraloks Development Limited, charged $2 million to facilitate the transaction, bringing the total sum to $8 million.

The National Security did not have the money to fund the transaction and for that reason NCA, which has a supervisory jurisdiction over the use of such equipment, was asked to fund the project.

It said $4 million was withdrawn from the account of the NCA, while $1 million out of the withdrawn amount was deposited into the account of the Israeli company.

According to the state, the remaining $3 million was lodged in the account of Oppong, who acted as a representative of the local agents, Infraloks Development Ltd.

Osman allegedly fronted for the entire deal.

The accused persons later laundered the amount for their private benefit.