A former Minister of Youth and Sports, Clement Kofi Humado has said he cannot be blamed for the payments made to the Chief Executive of Goodwill International Group (GIG), Philip Assibit.
According to him, he only approved payments to be made to Mr. Assibit,because the then Ghana Youth employment Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) Coordinator, Abuga Pele had written to justify those payments.
A prosecution witness in the GYEEDA trial in June told the Financial Division of the High Court that GH¢53,000 was unlawfully paid to Philip Assibit for consultancy services.
[contextly_sidebar id=”AXkTXi9u6LqjlgPoKuETEvWywxmBh98W”]According to the witness, the money was released from the account of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), currently known as GYEEDA, and paid to him.
Mr Mohammed Pelpuo, a former Deputy National Co-ordinator of the NYEP, said the amount was part of a GH¢59,000 budget approved for the collection of data for an operational manual, including a tracer report requested by the World Bank.
Testifying as prosecution witness in the misappropriation case against former GYEEDA Boss Abuga Pele and Philip Assibit, Mr. Humado said his suspicions were raised when Assibit brought a letter requesting an amount of over 800,000 dollars for tracer studies.
He explained to the court that his suspicion was based on the fact that, he had prior to that request, approved some 2 million dollars to be paid to Mr. Assibit and another company as cost of a feasibility study for the procurement of the World Bank loan.
Incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Chiana-Paga, Abuga Pele and Philip Akpeena Assibit, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Goodwill International Group (GIG) are standing trial for the various roles they played at GYEEDA, which the Attorney General’s Department say caused huge financial loss to the state.
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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