The immediate past Chief Executive Officer of the National Communication Authority (NCA), William Tevie, and four others, have been put before a High Court over the alleged fraudulent $6 million contract between the NCA and Infraloks Development Limited (IDL).
Mr. Tevie, alongside the former board chairman, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie; Alhaji Osman, a former Deputy National Security Coordinator and the head of IDL, George Oppong, have been charged and arraigned for willfully causing financial loss to the State contrary to section 23(1) and section 179(3)(a) of the Criminal Offences Act 1960, Act 29.
They have also been charged with 16 other offences.
The suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail to the tune of $1 million each with 3 sureties.
They are also to surrender their passports to the court Registrar.
The five are facing trial over some $4 million withdrawn from the NCA’s accounts, purportedly for the purchase of a surveillance equipment.
Reports indicate that an Israeli company, NSO Group Technology Limited was contracted to supply the surveillance equipment at the cost of $6 million, to enable National Security monitor conversations of persons believed to be engaged in terrorism.
IDL was also reportedly charging $2 million to facilitate the transaction, bringing the total sum to $8 million.
But the three, through the said contract, allegedly withdrew $4 million from the accounts of the NCA and have failed to account for it.
But only $1 million was paid into the accounts of the Israeli company.
Mr. Oppong, for one, has previously denied conniving with the said officials to loot state money, arguing that the contract was genuine.
He also said the equipment was lying unused in the garage of some former officials of the NCA
Mr. Oppong explained that after being awarded the $8 million contract from the NCA, IDL also contracted NSO Group Technologies Limited – an Israeli company, for the supply and installation of the equipment in which the Israeli company was to receive about $6 million of the total sum.
He added that IDL received a $4 million (out of $8 million) as the first tranche of payment from NCA adding that they also forwarded about $3 million of the amount to NSO to enable them NSO supply the facility.
According to him, all the parties involved in the deal subsequently signed an undertaking with the Bank of Ghana following the huge sums of money involved.
Credit: citifmonline
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