GSA conclusions are based on national and international standards-Witness

Mrs Genevieve Ofosuhemaa Mantey, Head of Material Science Department, Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), says at the Material Science Department of the Authority, conclusions are based on national and international standards.

She said, however, sometimes conclusions suited clients’ specifications. Such clients include individuals, academia and government institutions, students among others, who come with their own specifications.

 
Mrs Mantey, a subpoenaed witness for Mr Seidu Agongo, was speaking in her evidence-in-chief in the trial, involving Dr Stephen Opuni, a former Chief Executive of COCOBOD, led by Mr Benson Nutsukpui, Counsel for Agongo.

 
Dr Opuni and Mr Agongo are facing 27 charges, including defrauding by false pretences, willfully causing financial loss to the State, money laundering, and corruption by a public officer in contravention of the Public Procurement Act. 

They have both pleaded not guilty to the charges and are on a GH¢300,000.00 self-recognizance bail each. 

The witness said standards had specifications for all perimeters and that if there was a Ghana standard for a product to be tested it was used but if not, they looked for other international standards to conclude their testing.

She said the Authority includes all the stakeholders in the standards development and that they only served as a Secretariat. 

The Head of Material Science Department said the Department housed six laboratories, including textile, plastic and polyoma, Bold and Hall Marking, Petroleum, water and the general chemistry laboratories.

 
The witness, who has worked at the Authority for 28 years, said every Laboratory had a manager, supervisors, and several analysts.

She said all the laboratories had technical and quality managers and when samples were received, they were assigned to analysts, who carried out the work and submitted it back to the laboratory managers for vetting.

She said after the vetting, a report was generated and submitted to the Head of Department and later submitted to the Director and onwards to the Clients.

When asked whether she was aware of the forensic and cosmetics laboratory at the GSA, she answered in the affirmative, saying it was one of the laboratories in the testing Directorate. 

 
She said those laboratories did not report to her but rather reported to the Director of Testing.

 
She said the forensic and cosmetics laboratory dealt with drugs and medical devices, among others.