Tsikata Pursues Appeal Against Conviction

July 5, 2011 (Page 3 Lead)

The Court of Appeal Monday directed its registrar to furnish the state with the record of proceedings at the Fast Track High Court which convicted Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, a former Chief Executive of Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC).

The state is also expected to be served with exhibits of the trial of Mr Tsikata, who was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in June, 2008, for wilfully causing financial loss to the state and misapplying public property.

Mr Tsikata, who was released in December, 2008, under presidential pardon, filed an appeal against his conviction saying the verdict was unreasonable and could not be supported by the evidence on record.

At the Court of Appeal’s sitting in Accra yesterday, a Chief State Attorney, Ms Merley Wood, informed the court that the court on the last adjourned date ordered that mistakes in the record of proceedings at the lower court be corrected but that had not been done yet.

Mr Tsikata, whose lawyer was absent, explained that there were no mistakes in the record of proceedings; rather the court had on May 27, 2010, ordered that the font sizes of the record of proceedings be emboldened.

He also stated that the record of proceedings did not come with exhibits.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice S.E. Kanyoke and supported by Mr Justice K. N. Aduama-Osei and Mr Justice Dennis Adjei, accordingly directed the registrar to serve the state with the records of proceedings and exhibits.

A new date is yet to be fixed for the hearing of the appeal.

On June 18, 2008, Mr Tsikata was found guilty on three counts of wilfully causing financial loss of GH¢230,000 to the state and another count of misapplying public property and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on each count to run concurrently.

The former chief executive of the GNPC was charged in 2002 with three counts of wilfully causing financial loss of GH¢230,000 to the state through a loan he guaranteed for Valley Farms, a private cocoa-producing company, on behalf of the GNPC, and another count of misapplying GH¢2,000 in public property.

Valley Farms contracted the loan from Caisse Francaise de Developement in 1991, but defaulted in the payment and the GNPC, which acted as the guarantor, was compelled to pay it in 1996.

Tsikata pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted a recognisance bail.

On June 18, 2008, Mr Tsikata had gone to the court without his lawyer who, he said, was outside the jurisdiction on the day of his incarceration, and had sought to take a date for the hearing of a fresh motion on notice to take further evidence that he had filed at the court.

The motion sought an order granting leave for the defence to call further evidence in the case but the court, presided over by Mrs Justice Henrietta Abban, convicted him.

In the grounds of appeal, Mr Tsikata contended that the trial judge erred in law in deciding that financial loss had been caused simply because payment of monies had been made by the GNPC.

According to him, the trial judge erred in law in deciding that there was no provision for indemnity from Valley Farms for the guarantee when the express terms of the guarantee agreement gave GNPC a right of subrogation over the assets of Valley Farms.

It said the trial judge erred in law in deciding that because the said investment in Valley Farms was outside the objects of GNPC, on her interpretation of the statute setting up GNPC, financial loss had thereby been caused to the state.

According to the appellant, the trial judge showed manifest bias against him in the conduct of the trial and particularly in relation to her decision to proceed to give judgement when no notice had been served on him to the effect that judgement would be given on that fateful day.

He said the trial judge manifested her determination to give a biased judgement by striking out an application by his counsel to introduce further evidence from admissions made by the Attorney-General during a Supreme Court proceeding that there was no dispute about the viability of the evidence when his counsel had written to the court to explain his absence and requested a date for the hearing of the application.

He said the trial judge also erred in disregarding evidence from the prosecution itself that made it clear that the project in relation to which the charges had been brought was a profitable investment which would have yielded benefits to the nation and the GNPC.

The appellant argued that the trial judge again erred in claiming that an investment in a cocoa project was unrelated to the business of the government when there was uncontested evidence that funding from the export of cocoa was critical to the responsibility of GNPC to import crude oil for the country.

He noted that the trial judge again erred in holding that the he had admitted in a caution statement that he authorised the GNPC Head of Finance to effect the payment in the charge sheet.

According to Mr Tsikata, the trial judge further erred in failing to appreciate the role that Merchant Bank played as the trustee of GNPC resources.