FORMER CHIEF ACCOUNTANT, FOUR OTHERS JAILED (PAGE 18, OCT 15, 2010)

A Former Chief Accountant and accounts officer of Department of Urban Roads in the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) and four officials of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have been given various jail terms for defrauding the state to the tune of more than GH¢126,000.
The convicts are to serve their term of imprisonment as well as pay the full amount to the government chest through IRS.
They are, Awutu Ellies Kaati, Chief Accountant/finance officer of STMA who was jailed five years and is to pay GH¢40,000; Forson Glover Senior IRS staff had three years and is to pay GH¢20,000; Edmond Seidu IRS staff, would serve four-years and pay GH¢20,000.
Another IRS staff, Mahama Sulemana will serve five-years and refund GH¢40,000 while Martin Evih and Joshua K. Yanney will serve six months and 2 month as well as pay GH¢16,300 and GH¢1,500 respectively.
The amount, according to the Principal State Prosecutor, Mr George Kpodo, was withholding tax collected from various companies in the metropolis and diverted it into another account which the convicts had opened for their dubious deals.
The officials of the two state institutions also cashed some of the monies over the counter at the Takoradi Branch of the Bank of Ghana even though the payments were meant for IRS and forged receipts were issued to cover it.
Examination of the cheques involved indicated that the payees on the cheques were altered from the “IRS” to read: “Irvering Rams Saka (IRS), others in the name of Metro Roads Engineer, Tarib Enterprise for no work done.
The rest were written in the name of one “Francis R Asiedu” who is non existent. The prosecutor said other cheques were written in the names of “Kwaka Ent,” Jaysem and “Improved Macadams.”
The state prosecutor said the fictitious and fraudulent deals of the convicts were discovered by the audit check in 2006 of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Mr Kpodo said the evidence after the findings by PAC in 2006, led to the discovery of Glover who was a senior staff at the IRS who collected blank IRS receipt from Edmond Seidu, Martin Evih and Joshua Yanny and sent them to an accountant at the Urban Roads.
Before passing judgement, the Supervising High Court Judge, Rubbin Batu said, the fact that the monies would be paid did not warrant their freedom, adding that once the offence had been committed, they had to face the punishment accordingly.