Isaac Odamtten
THE PARLIAMENTARY candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Tema East Constituency of the Greater Accra Region, Isaac Ashai Odamtten, appears to be struggling to meet bail conditions set by high court, Financial and Economic Crime Division over his alleged involvement in about GH¢5.7 million financial malfeasance during this tenure as Mayor of Tema.
He spent Monday night in the cells of the Community 11 Police Station after he was put before the court together with four others over the ‘unaccounted for’ funds.
Mr. Odamtten was charged with five counts of conspiracy to cause financial loss, causing financial loss to the republic, contravention of public procurement act, extortion, money laundering and loss cause by dishonesty.
The second accused person, Tei Azu, Chief Executive of CTK Geosys Limited, the private company contracted to collect revenue on behalf of TMA, is facing three counts of fraudulent breach of trust, falsification of accounts and deliberate dissipation of public funds.
The rest, namely Nicholas Agbemodzi and Emmanuel Nortey, former Metropolitan Finance Officer and former Metropolitan Coordinating Director TMA respectively as well as Stephen Quarshie, Internal Auditor of TMA, are all facing conspiracy to cause financial loss to the republic, causing financial loss to the republic, extortion and failure to account for public property.
Mr. Quarshie is facing an additional charge of loss caused by carelessness.
All the accused persons pleaded not guilty when they appeared before the court presided over by Justice Ellen Vivian Amoah.
Fact of the case presented by representatives from the Attorney General’s Department are that on January 8, 2019, EOCO in Tema received intelligence to the effect that CTK, the company engaged by TMA in January in 2015 to undertake revenue collection of property rate and business operating permit in Tema Zone 1 and Industrial Area, failed to submit any revenue to the TMA since the third quarter of 2015.
Information gathered through intelligence also revealed that Tei Azu had without the knowledge of the assembly opened two joint bank accounts in the name of CTK and Assembly at the First Atlantic Bank and Universal Merchant Bank with himself as the sole signatory to both accounts.
In the course of investigation, it was established that CTK whose core business was listed as mapping, aerial survey and geographic engineering had been unilaterally contracted by the former mayor to collect property rate and business operating permit on behalf of the assembly without going through any proper procurement process, the prosecution alleged.
Per an agreement between TMA and CTK dated January 5, 2015, the revenues were to be collected and paid into a receivable account opened by the assembly. Out of the money received into the receivable account, CTK was to be paid 30 per cent of the gross revenue as commission whilst the assembly retains 70 per cent.
The prosecution said further investigation indicated that Tei Azu’s company was again awarded a contract by the assembly to print the assembly’s property rate and demand notice for a commission of 5 per cent of the revenue collected.
A forensic audit conducted into the revenue collection contract between TMA and CTK from 2015 to 2018 revealed that Tei Azu illegally opened two joint accounts in the name of CTK and TMA with First Atlantic Bank and Universal Merchant Bank, the prosecution said.
The accounts which were opened in 2015 were used as revenue collection accounts.
However, statements on both accounts revealed that CTK deposited a total of GH¢4,384,818.12 of the revenue collected on behalf of TMA into the accounts.
Out of these amount, CTK transferred GH¢3,682,818.22 into its operational account held with the First Atlantic Bank and transferred only GH¢702,599.90 to TMA.
According to the prosecution, investigation revealed that 30 per cent of the revenues collected by CTK under the contract were rather paid to Isaac Odamtten as kick back in his capacity as MCE.
Further investigation showed TMA paid GH¢319,552.12 as 5 per cent commission to CTK under the contract awarded to the company for the printing property rate receipts and demand notices.
Out of the 5 per cent commission paid to CTK by the assembly, a total of GH¢185,603.94 was paid as kick back to the management of the assembly through Nicholas Agbemodzi, the prosecution said.
In 2017, when the assembly through Stephen Quarshie requested for a statements of accounts on the joint account opened by Tei Azu with First Atlantic Bank, Tei Azu reportedly caused two of his workers to falsify the said statement of account, the prosecution said.
Although Emmanuel Nortey and Nicholas Agbemodzi who were Metropolitan Coordinating Director and Metropolitan Finance Officer respectively found out about the existence of the joint account illegally opened by Tei Azu, they failed to take any serious steps to close the account having received monetary gift from CTK.
Stephen Quarshie, who was internal auditor also knew about the existence of the joint accounts but also failed to take any action against same. Investigation revealed that he had also received some monetary gift from CTK.
After presenting the facts, the court granted them GH¢10 million bail each with two sureties each and a justification and were asked to deposit their passports with the registry of the court.
However, the former mayor of Tema was unable to meet the bail condition and had to spend the night in police cells.
As a result, some supporters of the NDC who said the move was politically-motivated became incensed and went on rampage to destroy properties at Tema Newtown.
Properties belonging to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) including the party office in the constituency saw some destruction and it took the intervention of the police to bring the situation under control.