Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Jeff Edward Musoru, has told the Fast Truck Court that his investigations showed that a total payment of 1,297,500 dollars was made to Leebda Corporation of Texas in US for the project even though no contract had been signed.

He said he arrived at that conclusion after contacting sources such as the Judicial Service, National Institutional Renewal Programme (NIRP) and the Ministries of Finance and Justice.

ASP Musoru said he was assigned on April 27, the job of investigating the award of a contract for the Court Computerisation Project involving Victor Selormey, a former Deputy Minister of Finance.

The ASP who is the sixth witness, was giving evidence for the prosecution in the Court Computerisation Project case in which Selormey is charged with conspiracy, defrauding by false pretences and wilfully causing financial loss of about 1.3 million dollars to the state. Selormey has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is on a 1.5 billion-cedi bail with two sureties.

Led in his evidence in chief by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Osafo Sampong, witness said in the course of his investigations he found that no contract was signed, yet the accused person authorised payment to be made by ECOBANK (Ghana) Limited to Leebda Corporation.

ASP Musoru said his investigations revealed that the former Deputy Minister wrote two letters dated November 27, 1998 and February 12, 1999 authorising ECOBANK to transfer 432,500 US dollars and 865,000 US dollars respectively to Leebda Corporation in Texas, for the attention of Dr Frederick Owusu Boadu of Leebda.

Investigations further reveal that there were no copies of the letters at the Accountant-General's Department and the Auditor General's Department, although they were supposed to have copies of those letters. The investigator also contended that the letters did not have file numbers.

Witness said the money was paid from the Trade and Investment Programme (TIP) accounts and explained further that the USA provided 80 million dollars to the government of Ghana as a grant to be used in promoting non-traditional exports. He said he found out that there was an Oversight Committee on the TIP, which was chaired by the former Deputy Minister and had Mr Dan Abodakpi, former Minister for Trade and Industry as a member.

According to the witness, the committee was to operate from 1992 to 1997. However, by the end of 1997, it was still operating and the money in the account was being used by the accused and the ex-Trade Minister "because they felt there was the need to use this money." He said his investigations at the Ministry of Justice showed that it was not aware of the contract neither did it sign any with Leebda Corporation.

ASP Musoru said on May 3, he invited the former Deputy Minister to the Police Headquarters where he asked him about two specific payments he authorised ECOBANK to make to Leebda. The investigator said the accused person, who was accompanied by Mr Kwaku Baah, one of his Counsel declined to give any statement and maintained that he would only give his statement to the court.

The witness said on May 7, he took investigation-cautioned statement from Selormey, which he wrote in English.

The court adjourned proceedings at the instance of the prosecution to Monday, June 25, to enable the investigator in the case to tender some documents.