- Cassiel Ato Forson faces charges of causing €2.37 million financial loss
- Ministry of Health failed to protect the ambulances
- Counsel to file witness statements for all eight witnesses
Businessman Richard Jakpa, a defendant in the ‘defective’ ambulance trial, has told a High Court that medical equipment in the first 10 ambulances shipped to Ghana were stolen at the port, and the inner compartment was vandalized.
He attributed this to the Ministry of Health’s failure to protect the ambulances at the port.
Jakpa, along with Minority Leader and former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, is facing charges of causing €2.37 million financial loss to the state through a contract to purchase 200 ambulances for the Health Ministry.
Under cross-examination, Jakpa revealed that due to the theft, the Ministry of Health agreed with the supplier to ship the next 20 ambulances without medical equipment, which would be sent separately in a container.
He also pointed out that a post-delivery inspection report included items not part of the original contract.
Jakpa further stated that any vehicle, including a tricycle (‘Aboboyaa’), can be converted into an ambulance, emphasizing that ambulances are built to specifications and are not off-the-shelf goods.
The court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, has ordered Jakpa’s counsel to file witness statements for all eight witnesses, dismissing the “one at a time” approach adopted by the defense.
