James Ebenezer Kobina Dadson addressing journalists
The Lands Commission has interdicted 10 of its officers for their alleged involvement in stealing GH¢100m from unsuspecting public meant for the payment of the registration of their properties.
Addressing a press conference yesterday in Accra, the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, James Ebenezer Kobina Dadson said the 10 officers were interdicted as part of the internal disciplinary measures to deal with staff who flout the conditions of service.
According to him, the fraud was detected in May 2022 when the audit unit of the commission realised some tax figures paid by some property owners for the registration of their properties failed to reflect the tax amount expected.
He said, “The internal audit unit of the commission uncovered some anomalies regarding some payment of stamp duties. It was realised by the audit unit that the assessed figures didn’t necessarily reflect the payment effected by property owners or those processing the document for registration, and so the commission itself commenced investigations into the matter by reporting to the CID of the Ghana Police Service.
“21 persons including 16 staff were interrogated by the NIB. They were picked up from the office; 16 of them were picked, while 5 are still at large.”
He said the case, which was later reported to the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), was still under investigation, while the commission continues with it internal investigations.
“The commission has a policy that it takes as part of the disciplinary measures taken against staff, and so once we have exhausted those processes then we place the staff on interdiction. This is a policy on the commission’s staff discipline as part of our conditions of service,” he pointed out.
He further indicated that though his outfit may not put a figure around how much the suspects have stolen from the commission, it has put in place measures to “forestall the unfortunate incident” from happening in future as they initiate steps to move onto a robust platform to be managed by another firm rather than an in-house information platform.
The Executive Secretary however urged the public to be circumspect in their utterances on the matter since the case is still in court.
He added that the commission was in no way conferring conviction on the suspects, but they were required to step aside for investigations to continue.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah