Fraud Alert At Accountant-General

Story By Felix Dela Klutse

The Controller and Accountant General’s Department is entangled in widespread scandal that is costing public sector workers millions of Ghana cedis.

BUSINESS GUIDE gathered that certain unscrupulous workers of the department have leaked the staff ID numbers of some public sector employees, which is supposed to be confidential, to fraudsters who are using it to secure loans from some financial institutions across the nation.

Mostly affected in this widespread scam are teachers whose salaries have been withdrawn without their knowledge on allegation that they supposedly took bank loans.
The development has sent panic to the teaching fraternity and it is likely that the situation will aggravate if nothing is done about it.

One of the victims of this scam, Ivan Yao Akrobotu, a science teacher at Nima 2 Junior High School in Accra, has already petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) over the issue and indications are that many such victims are likely to also follow suit with similar petitions.
According to the petition dated July 10, 2009 with reference number 2009/HQ/01348,

Mr. Akrobotu, upon receiving his June 2009 payslip on July 7, 2009, he realised that a deduction of GH¢119.85 was made from his salary in the name of Bayport Financial Services.

He said when he followed up to the Kokomlemle branch of the financial institution, near Accra Technical Training Centre to enquire why the deduction was made, the manager (name undisclosed) admitted that it was a mistake on the part of Bayport, stating that “a client of ours in the Western Region uses your staff ID number to apply for loan from us.”

“My request to see the documents the supposed client used to request for the loan was not fulfilled. My request for an immediate refund and a communiqué to Controller and Accountant General to immediately stop the deductions from my salary also received no response,” Mr. Akrobotu stated.

He added: “I further proceeded to the Controller and Accountant General Greater Accra Salaries Unit where I was directed by a worker in the office to see one Mr. Allotey for my complaint. After narrating my story to Mr. Allotey, he told me ‘These people (Bayport) are always involved in these sorts of things, they benefit from it I suppose.”

Mr. Akrobotu’s petition to CHRAJ is therefore calling on Bayport Financial Services to produce the document the supposed client used in applying for the loan from Bayport and the name of the supposed client for further investigation.
He is also calling on the Controller and Accountant General to produce the documents that Bayport submitted to them, which leads to the deductions in his salary for June 2009.

Mr. Akrobotu also demanded that Bayport refunded the amount deducted from his salary with undisclosed interest.

“This is to take care of my expenses during pursuance of this matter and emotional torture that I am going through. Again, that my GH¢119.85 is being used to run their Bayport business, hence the need for the interest,” he explained.

When reached for comments, Public Relations Officer of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, who failed to disclose his name to this reporter, said it is the responsibility of employers to keep the staff ID numbers of their employees confidential, stressing that his outfit could not accept responsibility for the scam.

The Deputy Manager of the Kokomlemle branch of Bayport Financial Services, who gave his name only as Augustine, told this paper that the problem might have been from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, noting that it is the department which does the deduction on behalf of Bayport.

“The Department does the deduction on our behalf based on the information we give to them,” another worker at Bayport, who gave her name only as Patricia told BUSINESS GUIDE.

As at the time of going to the press, Bayport pledged to solve the problem.

E-mail: felixklutse@yahoo.com