Stanilav Xoese Dogbe, a Special Aide at the Office of the President would soon be dragged before the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to account for the GH¢169,000.00 (¢1.69billion) he took from the Principal Accountant of the Ministry of Information.
The money was budgeted for educating Ghanaians on the 2010 National Budget but Mr. Dogbe, after collecting the money is on record to have admitted that he used a percentage of the money to buy Christmas hampers for some selected journalists.
He also mentions some group of journalists he used the money in educating but they have all publicly denied his claims and dared him to prove otherwise.
DAYBREAK has gathered that the Progressive National Forum (PNF) is lacing its boots to drag Mr. Dogbe to CHRAJ for him to explain how he used the money and whether the buying of Christmas hampers for some unmanned journalists was part of the original budget.
It was the same group that dragged former Sports Minister, Mubarak Muntaka to CHRAJ to explain why he wrongly presented a female friend as a worker of his ministry and travelled with her outside Ghana using the taxpayer’s money. The case is still pending before the Commission.
When Richard Nuamah, a leading member of PNF, was contacted by DAYBREAK, he was tightlipped over the matter and said the group had initially taken that decision but put it on hold temporarily. Meanwhile other members of the group have shown this paper documents that PNF had compiled over the matter as well as draft copies of the petition the group intends to send to CHRAJ.
Mr. Dogbe, when pushed to the wall to account for the money said he also gave part of the money to the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists, (IFEJ) but Lyoyd Evans, the Association’s President, has challenged that claim and put on record that IFEJ had never received any money from Mr. Dogbe .
IFEJ has also dared Stan Dogbe to substantiate his claim that he gave the group any money. He has not been able to do that and interestingly, has also not withdrawn his unsubstantiated claim.
“I cannot account for the money and so what?” Stan Dogbe said during a panel discussion on Joy FM’s Newsfile last two weeks Saturday when MP for Okaikoi South, Nana Akomea asked him about how he used the tax payer’s money.
And that has been his posture since news broke that a group of auditors at the Information Ministry had hit a dead end in reconciling figures on how the said amount was disbursed.
A member of the PNF told DAYBREAK that all attempts to get Mr. Dogbe explain what he used the money for has proved futile and going to CHRAJ was the only alternative left.
“You see, when we drag him to CHRAJ that is when he can be asked to prove how he used the money, as things stand now, he is only saying things he cannot substantiate and no one has the legal powers to make him account for it.
“Now, he says he used the money to buy hampers but CHRAJ would ask him to show the receipts of the hampers and then check from the stores he bought the hampers from with regards to VAT receipts. In fact if you look at the original reason for which the money was disbursed and what our sources at the Ministry are telling us and what the auditors are coming out with, it is clear that someone would be sent to court soon,” the PNF source noted.
