COURT TO FIX DATE FOR JUDGEMENT IN FORMER GNPC CEO CASE

THE Accra Fast Track High Court trying the former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Tsatsu Tsikata, will next Monday fix a date for the judgement in the case.
The judgement, which has been on hold since December last year, was scheduled for Wednesday, May 30, 2007 but it had to be adjourned again because of an appeal pending at the Supreme Court challenging the Court of Appeal decision that the former GNPC boss could not compel the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to testify in the case.
The court did not sit and people present were told by a clerk who returned from the judge’s chambers to say that all those who were in court because of the case should come on Monday, June 4, 2007 for a new date.
Tsikata lost his appeal at the Court of Appeal to compel the IFC to testify in the case in which he has been charged with causing financial loss to the state but immediately after the Court of Appeal’s unanimous verdict, he filed a notice of appeal to challenge the decision at the Supreme Court.
According to Tsikata, the statutory provisions in respect of the immunity of the IFC, among other reasons, were misrepresented by the Court of Appeal.
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, the IFC 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.