The trial of former Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) boss Sedina Tamakloe Attionu is set to continue on March 28, 2023.
This comes after the Accra High Court ordered that the former MASLOC boss be tried in absentia.
Mrs Attionu, who is on trial for allegedly causing a financial loss of GH¢90 million to the state during her tenure as the CEO of MASLOC between 2013 and January 2017, has been absent from trial since October 2021.
She has failed to show up in court for the past 16 months after being granted permission by the court to travel to the USA for medical treatment.
This led the prosecution to file an application for trial in absentia.
Ruling on the application on Friday, February 24, the presiding judge, Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, held that the accused be tried in absentia because she had “disabled herself of the opportunity to be tried in her presence”.
Article 19 (3) (a) of the 1992 Constitution allows a court to try an accused who refuses to show up for trial in absentia.
The two instances an accused person can be tried in absentia are if the person refuses to come for the trial after he or she has been informed about the trial and if the person behaves in a robust way that disrupts the proceedings of the court.
The court also directed that the order for trial in absentia should be posted on the court’s notice board and in a national newspaper for 21 days.
Background
The state said MASLOC, under the accused’s leadership, gave a loan of GH¢500,000 to Obaatanpa Micro-Finance Limited, but the company had allegedly returned the money because of the high interest that the loan attracted.
According to the state, Obaatanpa Limited presented a cheque for ¢500,000 to Mrs Attionu, but she allegedly refused and demanded cash payment.
It is also the case of the prosecution that in 2013, following a fire disaster at the Kantamanto Market, then President John Mahama directed MASLOC to assist GH¢1.46 million to victims of the disaster, but Attionu embezzled part of the money.
The state said the accused also allegedly inflated the price of items MASLOC had purchased during her tenure and, in some instances, signed procurement contracts without approval by the Public Procurement Authority.
It said on December 6, 2016, the accused person signed a contract with Mac Autos to supply MASLOC with 350 vehicles without approval from the Public Procurement Authority.
The vehicles, the state said, included Chevy Sparklite, Isuzu buses and Chevy Aveo, with the unit price offered by Mac Autos to MASLOC for the Chevy Aveo being GH¢74,495 ($18,883.39.)
However, investigations revealed that the actual retail price Mac Autos offered for the same model within the same year without duty was GH¢47,346.93 ($12,009.91).
Mrs Attionu is on trial with Daniel Axim, a former Operations Manager of MASLOC, on 78 counts of willfully causing financial loss to the state, stealing, and contravention of the public procurement act, among other charges.
The two have denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all charges.