Three employees of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) in the Brong-Ahafo region have been arraigned before a Sunyani High Court, Commercial Division “A” for allegedly stealing GH¢1, 288,824.00 revenue generated from two toll stations in the region.
Pleas of the accused, Messrs Rexford Bosompem, a Senior Accountant, Amidu Adams, a toll collector and Michael Bediako, a toll supervisor, were not taken by the Court presided over by Mr. Patrick Baye.
The Court however remanded Bediako, a retired supervisor at the Bechem toll station into prison custody to reappear on Thursday February 15, 2018.
The presiding Judge however ordered their sureties who represented them to produce the two accused at the next hearing.
Though prosecution was not heard, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) investigations revealed that in May 2016, the Financial Division of the GHA embarked on an exercise to reconcile toll revenues collected at all toll stations nationwide with the toll lodgements at GCB bank.
In the process, the Division discovered some purported lodgements of toll revenues for a couple of months from Bechem and Fiapre toll stations had not reflected on the Bank statements of the designated Road Fund bank account with the GCB.
With suspicion, the GHA directed its Internal Audit Division to conduct a special toll revenue collection and lodgement audit for the period January 2013 to April 2016 at the two toll stations.
The GNA gathered that Bosompem and Adams allegedly failed to lodge an amount of GH¢730,498.00 being part of toll revenues collected at the Fiapre toll station into the Road Fund Account with the bank, whilst Bediako did not lodge an amount of GH¢55,352.50.
The accused persons however, managed to get 230 pieces of forged GCB deposit slips as evidence of their bank lodgements to the Finance Division of the GHA.
A report was made to the Brong-Ahafo Regional Police Command and the accused were subsequently arrested and granted police enquiry bail.
-GraphicOnline