"As a human being, I would naturally be upset."
That is perhaps the most striking admission made by the lady selected as first prosecution witness in the case of causing financial loss against four employees of the National Communications Authority in connection with a 4 million dollars contract signed with Israeli firm IDL.
The four are immediate past Board Chairman of the NCA Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, it's immediate past Director General William Tevie and two former Board members.
Also standing trial is a private individual George Derek Oppong who is a Director of IDL.
Abena Kwarkoa Asafu-Adjei is the Director, Legal Administration and Special duty at the NCA and has already testified for two days.
Also included in Mrs. Asafu-Adjei's portfolio at the NCA is oversight of Procurement and Board Secretary.
Until the 2017 change in government, Mrs Asafu-Adjei had been reassigned from her role as Head of Legal.
The decision to reassign her was communicated in a letter handed her after returning from a mandatory 8 months accumulated leave ordered by the now beleaguered former Director General.
She was ordered to embark on the leave in July 2015 only to return and be told she is no more in charge of the legal department; a position she has held since 2003.
Lest I forget, before losing her position as Director, legal, Mrs Asafu-Adjei lost another position as Board Secretary in 2011.
Fast track to 2017 and Mrs Asafu-Adjei had regained all she has lost in 5 years and more.
Aside that, she is now testifying in a case that could further worsen the plight of four men under whose watch she lost her coveted position of Director, Legal at the NCA.
Mrs Asafu-Adjei admitted after strenuous resistance under cross examination that she was unhappy when she was asked to proceed on leave.
The man cross examining her is Tadius Sory who is lawyer for Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie.
During a heated session, Abena Kwarkoa Asafu-Adjei told the court that she was shocked at the decision to ask her to proceed on leave because at the time she was being forced to go on the prolonged leave there were other colleagues who had accumulated more leave days than her.
A visibly unhappy Mrs Asafu-Adjei told the court "I couldn't be bothered" when Tadius Sory asked whether she confronted the former Board Chairman about the decision if she felt it was unfair.
Mrs Asafu-Adjei however refuted any suggestion of bitterness towards either the former NCA Board Chair or the immediate past Director General.
Pointing to Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie, Mrs Asafu-Adjei stated "he is my good friend and he can't deny it."
This is despite accepting that she was she was "unhappy" with the decision.
Under the law, public servants can only accumulate up to 2 months of leave.
When pressed on how come she had accumulated leave days that are in clear violation of this provision, Mrs Asafu-Adjei said some of the leave days were accumulated at a time when she was the only lawyer at the NCA and the workload was such that she could not have gone on leave.
She said she was sometimes called back from her leave.
It was however unclear how much of the said leave period was accumulated during the period in question but it is clear that not all of it was accumulated during the period under review.
Even though Mrs Asafu-Adjei admitted the situation that she testified to has long changed, she didn't take the accumulated leave before she was compelled to.
When Tadius Sory sought to know whether NCA Director Legal Administration ever advised against the situation where she and some of her colleagues were allowed to accumulate leave days more than allowed under the law; she said she couldn't advise because she was on leave.
To be continued
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