Accountant Bolts With Over Billion Cedis

An Accountant of the Greater Accra Regional Survey Office, Yao Ketor Klutse is on the run after allegedly embezzling ¢1.17 billion belonging to the department. The alleged theft was detected when the accounting head of the Survey Department could not reconcile the bank pay-in slips with the monthly bank statements and revenue returns.

The horrifying exposure was contained in the Auditor Generals (AG’s) report made public at the sixth hearing of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament yesterday, where the Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines took its turn to answer queries raised by the AG.


The Ministry was represented by the sector minister, Hon Esther Obeng Dapaah, her two deputies and their technocrats. The auditees told the Committee they were dealing with a very intricate situation and were rather unsure whether it was a case of organised collusion since bank statements issued by the officials of the outfit proved to be faked. The PAC was told that at the time of the theft, the Survey Department had no internal audit system in place.


On why no attempts were made to retrieve some of the rather colossal sum of money, the auditees indicated that the case had been reported to the Airport Police in Accra and the picture of Mr Klutse published in the dailies. The PAC expressed surprise over the lack of proper supervision at the department and suggested that two supervisors, a certain Mr Quainor and Mrs Elizabeth Amu, both staff of the Controller Generals Department, be brought to book.

The Committee was told that Mr Quainor had retired while Mrs Amu had been transferred to another department. It also came to light that drivers at the Ministry did not maintain log books on the official vehicles to record journeys undertaken and full particulars of receipts and usage of fuel and lubricants amounting to ¢694 million. The report indicated that the weakness continued even though the ministry had a Transport Management Team, which supervised and controlled all the 36 official vehicles owned by the Ministry.


Management’s failure to ensure the maintenance of log books was viewed as a ploy to divert fuel for private purposes. The report charged the management to strengthen its supervisory function over the use of vehicles and fuel.


In a related development, it was disclosed that 14 timber contractors operating in the Cape Coast district had failed to pay concession rent amounting to ¢935.6 million, contrary to Schedule 4, Regulation 27 of Legislative Instrument 1649 of 1998.