Barclay's ?600m Scandal

...PW given time to produce evidence

The Accra Regional Tribunal hearing the alleged ?600 million conspiracy scandal that rocked Barclays Bank, High Street Branch in December, 1998 yesterday adjourned proceedings to May 15, this year to enable the 3rd prosecution witness to produce relevant documents to substantiate his evidence.

The tribunal presided over by His Lordship Justice C.I Quist immediately adjourned the case following an appeal from the counsel of the witness, Mr Charles Ofori of Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to allow his client, Mr Kofi Quao, to produce the documents relevant to the case at the next sitting.

The scandal that rocked the bank in 1998 was alleged to have involved Mr. Kwaku Asante, Managing Director of Asante Printing Press Ltd, who allegedly conspired with four ex-Barclays Bank officials at the High Street branch.

The four ex-officials are Mr Henry Addo, Barclays Bank High Street branch; Mr. Henry Lomotey,Operations Manager; Mr. Elvis Peasah, Supervior of Securities and Advances Department and Mr Christopher Dordaa, a store-keeper.

The prosecution witness told the court that in December 1998, it was noticed that the Barclays stationery expenditure of the High Street branch had been exceeded by approximately ?600million as a result of inflation by the alleged officials.

He said after the discovery of the scandal he was ordered by his boss, Mr Geoffery James Millard, to conduct an investigation to find out whether there was impropriety .

According to him, the statement of account he received from the bank, on the banks stationery expenditure revealed that most of the supplies were directly taken from Mr. Asante with documents endorsed by Mr. Lomotey and Mr. Henry Addo, adding that there were several entries to the tune of ?1.4 million, representing supplies which had been broken down to accommodate ?20 million cedis at the High Street branch, which was then ?1.5 million, implying that goods worth ?20 million had photocopies of several invoices.

Mr. Quao indicated that it was clear that purchases were in contradiction of the banks regulation, which states that "items purchased which exceed the bank's limits should be referred to the head office for approval."

He added that efforts to invite the person involved proved futile since they took advantage of an early leavers' scheme and were no more in the bank's employment in 1999 and the case was referred to the SFO for further investigation Mr. Quao said the SFO invited the accused persons for investigation and it was observed that the alleged amount was rather ?460 million.

Another investigation revealed that Mr Henry Addo, on assumption of office, and in collaboration with the named officials, as well as with the conspiracy of Mr. Asante, changed the mode of the stationery procurement of the bank, resulting in the inflation of the procurement.

Mr. Quao told the court that further investigations revealed that Mr. Asante had paid various sums of money to Peasah and Dordaa, and added that he also found many cheques issued by Asante which were collected by Peasah.

He further told the court that the right thing had not been done because the market value of the stationery had been inflated to almost triple the price to the bank by Asante