The accused are Muhammadou Lamin Jaiteh, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health, Balla Kandeh, programme manager of the Malaria Control Programme, and Omar Malleh Ceesay, executive director of the Health Promotion and Development Organisation (HePDO).
They were charged with theft, forgery, economic crime, disobedience of statutory duty, official corruption, and conspiracy to commit felony
The police witness, Bakary Drammeh, told the court he knew the accused persons when he was part of a panel that was investigating the audit report of the National Malaria Control Programme from 1st October 2018 to 2020.
The witness said that in the course of the investigation, they recovered monies amounting to four million four hundred and eighty-two thousand dalasis including 3% of administrative fees equivalent to two hundred and sixty-six thousand, six hundred and sixty-five dalasis.
Asked by the Director of Public Prosecution, AM Yusuf, how were those monies recovered, the witness said the amount was paid at the Fraud Squad by the admin and finance manager of HePDO.
The witness confirmed he deposited the said amount at the Central Bank, adding that the monies were paid in three installments according to the amounts of money they received. “Once we received money, we immediately deposited it to the Central Bank,” the witness stated.
The witness further explained how he deposited the money at the Central Bank, saying a request letter was sent to the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health, who gave them the account details they used to deposit the money.
“Once money is deposited, they would give us a deposit receipt. The treasury would provide us a receipt for the payment because they are the custodian of the account,” he explained.
The deposited receipts were shown to the witness to identify whether those were the receipts from the bank. The witness admitted there were the receipts andthat his name and signature were on them.
The DPP applied to tender the documents and the defence team objected not to the tendering of the documents into evidence.
In further revelations, the witness said there were seven payment vouchers from the National Malaria Control Programme to HePDO but could not remember the total amount.
However, the DPP asked the witness should he see the payment vouchers whether he would be able to identify them. The witness admitted he would be able to identify the vouchers because they were attached to contract documents and a request letter from HePDO to the National Malaria Control Programme for the approval payment sent to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health.
After identifying the 7 vouchers, the DPP applied to tender them as evidence with no objection from the defence team.
The case was adjourned till today.
