Daniel Yaw Domelevo – Controller and Accountant General
The former Western Regional accountant of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Gilbert Addison – who was on secondment from the Controller and Accountant General’s (C & AG’s) office – has been handed over to the police for allegedly siphoning GH¢115,882 from the accounts of the Council for his personal use.
He is said to have used the money to make an extension to a house he is building in the region – adding a living room, a store room, a garage and a fence around it – between May, 2013 and December, 2014.
This was detected by the Internal Audit Unit of the Council after he had managed to ‘skillfully and tactfully’ withdraw the money using his position as the head of the accounts section.
The disclosure of the alleged malfeasance was made by the administrator of the Nursing and Midwifery Council at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament hearing yesterday. That followed an inquisition by a member of the committee and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abrem, Samuel Atta-Mills. He wanted to know how the accountant was able to steal the money without any trace until the internal audit people uncovered it.
The administrator explained that the accountant was very skillful in withdrawing the money in bits without any detection, even though he was presenting monthly report to the management in-between the period the theft occurred.
He said when the internal audit people went in for the audit, they detected a theft in the region of GH¢40,000 but the accountant, who initially refused to admit the offence, was reported to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police Service which further investigations discovered a theft of GH¢115,882, after which the accountant admitted the offence.
He said the police had processed Gilbert Addison for court and the docket had been referred to the Attorney-General for advice, However, the Attorney-General was yet to take action on the case.
He said after the police had arrested the accountant, he refunded GH¢15,519,000, but the Council was seeking to retrieve the remaining GH¢96,882 through a court action.
The Auditor-General faulted the Council for giving a contract to Kanakgold Information Technology Ltd to supply three pieces of Cannon photocopiers worth GH¢123,994 without allowing competitive tendering.
The Council was also found to be at fault for pre-financing a contract for a company called Okore Technology for the supply of office furniture to the tune of GH¢350,000 – half of the contract sum, as mobilization fee.
The Auditor-General strongly recommended to the Council to establish a monitoring mechanism to supervise the collection of revenue and reconcile the respective pay-in slips with the cash book entries to ensure that moneys collected have been fully banked.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr