Figures emerging from government's Forensic and Management Audit of 11 public institutions have revealed that the State lost a whopping sum of ?3,136.5 billion due to fraudulent and other corrupt practices.
Finance Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo, speaking at a post-budget press briefing, Friday, last week, indicated that the government, in a move to retrieve the loot, has initiated both criminal and civil actions against people whose corrupt activities have led to such huge losses to the State.
The institutions audited include; Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC), Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ghana Water Company Ltd., (GWCL), Ghana Re-Insurance Company, State Insurance Company (SIC), Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and VANEF-STC.
When the Finance Minister was questioned as to what practical steps the government was taking to retrieve the loot, he said, "Government has established a special committee within the Attorney-General's outfit to do an in- depth analysis of what has happened and to point out which one is criminal and which one is civil".
He emphasized that sometimes some of the cases are civil in nature, while others are criminal, adding that the powers of distinction and prosecution lie within the purview of experts at the A-G's Department.
Hon. Osafo-Maafo also explained that even though his ministry has a part to play in retrieving the loot, their role is limited to only the forensic auditing.
On whether it is possible for government to retrieve the total amount, the Finance Minister said, "It is not possible to retrieve 100% of the money and it is even possible that some of the people involved may not even be living".
"Like it happened in all cases, we are not likely to retrieve the total amount but we are likely to retrieve a proportion because some of these people have assets and their assets are known.
If it is established that 'Ansah, for instance' owns eight houses and he owes, we then take civil action and get his property seized. I think it will take sometimes, as all court cases would do," he continued.
The hint of trial compelled Mr. Egbert Faibille, Managing-Editor of The Independent to ask the Finance Minister, a question on what the liabilities of Members of Boards and Chief Executives of such companies and corporations are in such instances.
"As an experienced Banker and also Minister of Finance, what is the level of liability of Members of Boards of Directors or Members of Boards of companies or corporations which have been audited," Faibille asked the minister.
Before the Hon. Minister could respond to the question, his Special Assistant, Dr. Akoto Osei, intervened and said " .We know The Independent is being supported by certain people, thank you very much," continuing that " You The Independent reported that the Minister of Finance was going to be replaced by a certain Minister."
His comments infuriated Mr. Faibille, who registered his displeasure but Dr. Osei insisted that his comments were based on facts. After a minute of drama, the minister answered the question saying, " I think the point you have made is very strong.
To start with, the moment you go into the civil matter then you look at what they call the levels of responsibilities and liabilities, I am not a lawyer..
But a board has taken a decision which later is found to have resulted in the loss of money then the whole board can be held responsible".
He further explained that if the board took such a decision based on available but misleading information from management "then in that case the board will come out to say we didn't know this because this was never tabled before us."
Continuing, Osafo-Maafo added that "I have read seven of the 11 reports and in the seventh what I find very interesting is that many of the serious matters were never taken to the various boards. That is, they were sent to management and management did not have power under the procedures of the institutions to do without consulting the board and so when that happened then it is management that comes to face the music".
The highlights of such public audits were given by the Minister in his Budget to Parliament in which he stated that a sum of ?21 billion of the public payroll was paid to ghost names over a five- month period from July to November, last year.
According to Hon. Osafo-Maafo, the initial results of the staff head count indicated that the value of bank payslip exceeded the records on the salary payment voucher during the period aforementioned.
He intimated that despite the discovery of such huge losses to the State through ghost names there are still 2000 'employees' no longer in the service of government who are still being paid on paper.
He noted that a great number of workers who are no longer with such institutions are still being paid.
In most cases, the Minister said, the banks colluded to pay names, which were only given as " Mr. A or Mr. B".
Hon. Osafo-Maafo, however, noted that the process of deleting the ghost names from the payroll is expected to be completed by the Controller and Accountant General by June, this year.
