2 Accountants Embezzle GH64,000 Grom GWC

By Maxwell Ofori, Parliament House
Two account clerks at the Accra West Office of the Ghana Water Company, have allegedly embezzled GH64,076.88 belonging to the company.

The clerks, whose names were given as Messrs Richard Asendoh and Richard Amoako allegedly embezzled the money, but are no more in the employment of the company.

The crime was brought to light when the officials of the GWCL appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament yesterday, to answer questions about some irregularities revealed by the Auditor General in its 2013 and 2014 report.

According to the officials, the case was immediately reported to the police, when the internal auditors at GWC unearthed the rot, but “it’s still in court,” the Managing Director of GWC, Fred Lokko told the Committee.

However, Chairman of the PAC, Kweku Agyemang Manu, could not fathom why a case of that nature had been in court for about eleven (11) years without judgment, blaming the management of GWC for not doing much to ensure the case was heard.

“If a case is in court and you don’t show active interest, the court may be relaxed to sit on it,” but the MD swiftly responded that we “have been following it.”

The representatives from the GWC told the Committee, when asked how much of the money has been retrieved that, only GH4100 had so far been recovered. Meanwhile, the Committee has promised to prompt EOCO, which is handling the issue to facilitate processes in dealing with the case.

Another irregularity cited by the Auditor General in its report was an accounts payable suspense. This in effect meant that, there were unidentified credits to the revenue account to the tune of GH80,507.18 but it has since been investigated and corrected through the subsequent bank reconciliation.

There was an issue where some items had been procured and used immediately but for which stock issue vouchers were not raised and this summed up to GH487,450.

Also, no reconciliation between the commercial department and accounts department on all balances caused the GWC GH5, 700, 482.02. The officials commenting on the irregularity said, “a reconciliation committee has been formed and they meet regularly to eliminate the discrepancies.”

Members of PAC were worried as almost all the infractions cited by the Auditor General had to do with reconciliation and, therefore, advised GWC to put measures in place to ensure they were not summoned for the same reason next time.