Suspected case of embezzlement at Bolgatanga Treasury

Bolgatanga, Oct 20, GNA -About 445 million cedis has been siphoned from the Upper East Regional office of the Controller and Accountant-General's office,(CAG) an audit investigation team, has established.

Mr George Gyapong, the Regional Director, alleged to have masterminded the deal, has been picked up for questioning in Accra.

Investigations conducted by the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga have revealed that huge sums of money were siphoned by the Regional Director from various departments since assuming duty in the region about one year ago.

A CAG source said departments suspected to be involved in the deal included the Bolgatanga Hospital, the District health Management Teams (DHMT) and the Department of Feeder Roads.

The Regional Treasury source stated that Mr Gyapong made heads of departments to understand that there was a way to inflate the financial encumbrance (FE) from the Controller and Accountant General's Department.

Mr Gyapong was alleged to have set up his own business companies some of which were "Man Must Grow" and "Sumwell Enterprises".

The director was then said to have used a typewriter with a typeface similar to the one being used for preparing the FE's to inflate figures.

However, the deals came to light when the Bawku East Deputy Director of Finance, identified only as Mr Amidu, realised that the figure on their FE had been tampered with.

When he questioned the district director about it he was told that the inflation was from headquarters.

Suspecting a deal, he informed headquarters several times but there were no reactions from the headoffice until Mr Amidu threatened to speak to the press.

This was when headoffice sent a special audit team to determine how much has been siphoned from the CAG in the region, the source said.