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Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Clement Kofi Humado, approved GH�835,000 for the payment of a tracer study conducted by Phillip Akpeena Assibit�s Goodwill International Group (GIG), a Financial Court in Accra heard yesterday. The court also heard how the payment request letter, written on April 7, 2012 by former National Coordinator of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), Abuga Pele, was approved by Mr Humado on the same date. However, Mr Humado, MP for Anlo, who is the fourth prosecution witness (PW4) in the GYEEDA scandal trial, told the court, presided over by Justice Afia Asare Botwe, that the approval did not constitute payment. Under cross-examination for the second day by Raymond Bagnabu, counsel for Assibit, the witness maintained that the late President John Atta Mills had appointed him as minister to ensure discipline in the financial administration of the ministry and its allied agencies, including the NYEP, and disagreed with counsel that he failed in his duties. Give-And-Take Counsel (Mr Bagnabu): On the same day you asked your Chief Director to ensure due diligence in the request submitted by A2 (Abuga Pele), you approved the payment for the tracer study? Witness (Mr Humado): Yes Counsel: So you did not do due diligence as you claimed in your evidence-in-chief. Witness: The payment plan differs from the item listed for payment. Mr Humado went on to explain what he meant by putting in place �payment plan to monitor the inflow and outflow of NYEP funds� and said the word �approved� he had minuted on Abuga Pele�s letter for the tracer study payment did constitute approval of the request, saying, �I did not approve payment but approved a payment plan and that included the tracer study.� The Anlo MP told the court that he did not know about the pay vouchers the NYEP raised because �they were never brought to my Chief Director for them to be given to me.� Tracer Study He insisted that the claim by Abuga Pele that there was a tracer study had been refuted by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) but counsel pointed out to him that the tracer study he was denying knowledge about had indeed been already tendered in evidence. When asked whether the tracer study was ever done, Humado said he got to know about that study from the EOCO, even though counsel put it to him that he (Humado) had approved the payment. He said the tracer study was disqualified because it was plagiarised and the position that the study did not exist was a claim made by EOCO and not him, adding, �I am aware of a request for a tracer study but I do not know if it was approved.� Minister�s Letter Mr Humado told the court that he did not see a letter written on his behalf by a director at the ministry called Agboada, asking the National Coordinator to include Assibit�s request for $528,000 for consultation services in the payment plan. He said although the NYEP was under the Ministry of Youth and Sports, it operated on its own and sometimes did things without recourse to the ministry. Accused Persons The accused persons are on trial for the various roles they allegedly played, which the Attorney General�s Department said caused huge financial loss to the state. The NDC MP is accused of wilfully causing financial loss to the state to the tune of GH�3,330,568.53 while Assibit is being tried for defrauding the state of an amount equivalent to $1,948,626.68. The two have pleaded not guilty and are currently on bail. Sitting continues today.