Ato Forson’s acquittal: Attorney General describes Court of Appeal’s decision as Unfair, intends to file an appeal to correct ‘erroneous decision’

The Office of the Attorney-General has described the decision of the Court of Appeal concerning the controversial Ambulance trial as “grossly unfair to the nation and inimical to the fight against impunity and abuse of public office”.

“The Office will promptly file an appeal in order to erase the effect of this erroneous decision of the Court of Appeal”.

This was contained in a statement issued shortly after the Court of Appeal acquitted and discharged Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, the Minority Leader, and businessman Richard Jakpa for allegedly causing financial loss to the State.

Ambulance case: Court of Appeal acquits and discharges Ato Forson

The Court said the two had no case to answer, and therefore stepped aside an earlier decision of the trial High Court for the case to proceed, for which Richard Jakpa, the 3rd accused, had had to call a number of witnesses.

But the Attorney General considers the decision of the Court of Appeal as “clearly heavily against the weight of the cogent evidence led by the prosecution in substantiation of all the charges against the accused persons at the trial”.

A-G Press Release – Republic v. Ato Forson & 2 Others

The relevant facts of the matter according to the Attorney General are as follows:

Vehicles purporting to be ambulances were imported into the country in December, 2014 in violation of the contract governing the transaction.

The then Minister for Health, Ms. Sherry Aryittey, had cautioned in writing against the importation of the vehicles into the country.

There was thus no request by the Ministry of Health for the vehicles to be imported into the country, or for the letters of credit which were the means of payment for the vehicles under the contract, to be established.

With no request from the Ministry of Health or any authorisation whatsoever, and at a time that the period for supply of the ambulances under the contract had even lapsed, the first accused, Cassiel Ato Forson, by letters dated and 7th and 14th August, 2014, instructed the Bank of Ghana and the Controller and Accountant-General to issue letters of credit for the payment for the vehicles.

The letters of credit were consequently established on 18th August, 2014. Big Sea General Trading LLC, the suppliers of the vehicles based in Dubai, whose contract had no parliamentary approval, proceeded to ship the vehicles on receipt of the letters of credit.

When the vehicles arrived, they were not of the kind specified in the contract. Further, apart from the absence of basic parts and equipment required for an ambulance, the National Ambulance Service and the Ministry of Health noted serious defects with every material part of the vehicles.

Such was the fundamental nature of the defects that a former Minister for Health, Dr Alex Segbefia described the vehicles as “ordinary vans” not fit for purpose.

In point of fact, a report on the vehicles by the authorised dealers in Mercedes Benz, commissioned by the Ministry of Health in 2015 to assess the vehicles (tendered in evidence by the prosecution), stated that the vehicles could never be converted into ambulances.

The defects were so irremediable that from the time the vehicles started arriving in December, 2014 up to January, 2017 when the erstwhile John Mahama administration left office, they could not be converted into ambulances.