SUPREME COURT TO HEAR FORMER GNPC BOSS APPEAL

THE Supreme Court yesterday adjourned to October 30, 2007 the hearing of the civil appeal filed by the former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Tsatsu Tsikata, challenging the Court of Appeal decision that the International Finance Corporation (IFC) was immune from judicial processes to testify in court.
Tsikata is seeking the court’s order to compel the IFC to testify in the case in which he has been charged with causing financial loss to the state.
He lost his appeal at the Court of Appeal to compel the IFC to testify in the case but immediately after the Court of Appeal’s unanimous verdict, he filed a notice of appeal to challenge the decision at the Supreme Court, thus putting on hold the judgement in the substantive case.
According to Tsikata, the statutory provisions in respect of the immunity of the IFC, among other reasons, were misrepresented by the Court of Appeal.
At the Supreme Court’s sitting yesterday, Mr Justice William Atuguba, who presided over a five-member panel, said the court received a letter from counsel of the appellant in the morning that they had received the hearing notice on short notice.
As a result, Mr Justice Atuguba asked the acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Ms Gertrude Aikins, whether she had received a copy, since, on the face of it the letter was copied to her. She replied in the affirmative and stated that that should not stop the case from going ahead.
Major R.S. Agbenatoe, one of the lawyers for Tsikata, told the court that the essence of the letter was that they had been served on short notice for the hearing of the matter.
He said the hearing notice was served on them at 10.00 a.m. on July 20, 2007 and, therefore, they were entitled to some days in order to prepare.
Mr Justice Atuguba agreed that four days were not reasonable and he adjourned the matter to enable the parties to begin the filing processes.
Following the pendancy of the appeal, judgement in the substantive case has been on hold since December last year.
The high-profile case, which has been pending since 2002, has suffered various fates, following a resort to the law by the defence, and since the outcome of the Supreme Court decision could affect the judgement in the trial court, it has to be on hold.
The Fast Track Court, on January 24, 2006, ruled that the IFC, its employees and assets were immune from judicial processes and, therefore, it could not be called to testify in the matter which Tsikata believed was crucial to his defence.
The court held that if the IFC was not prepared to waive its immunity, the court could not compel it to do so.
That was after Tsikata had requested the Court of Appeal to set aside decisions of the trial court and order the IFC to appear, testify and produce documents in its custody in respect of the funding of studies conducted on the Valley Farms project.
The former chief executive of the GNPC had a brush with the law when, in 2002, the state charged him with three counts of wilfully causing financial loss of about ¢2.3 billion to the state through a loan he, on behalf of the GNPC, guaranteed for Valley Farms and another count of misapplying ¢20 million 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 has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is on self-recognisance bail.