The Evening News reports that about 300 telephone lines whose bills were debited to the Office of the President at the Castle, Osu have accumulated ?19 billion to be paid for by the state.
The paper says its investigations at the Castle have revealed that about 200 of the lines were private lines of former Ministers of the NDC and close associates of former President Rawlings.
Prominent among them was Mr Michael Sousoudis, a cousin of former President Rawlings whose telephone bill was borne by the state throughout the period of the PNDC and the NDC rule. This bill is said to be running into millions of cedis, according to Castle sources.
Also, two Warrant Officers who acted as liaison officers between the Castle and Ghana Telecom gave out tens of lines to members of the 64 Battalion Infantry and some bodyguards of ex-President Rawlings.
The two men, according to the source usually went to Ghana Telecom claiming the then President or his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings has instructed that lines should be given out to certain people and the bills credited to the Office of the President.
The source said the Office of the President woke up from its slumber when the bills were presented by Ghana Telecom when the NPP government took over the reigns of government.
On receiving the bills, the source said suspicion arose, following the substantial amount involved and therefore decided to cross check on the actual users of the lines involved.
It said all the 300 lines were disconnected after which the users were contacted individually. The source said those from the 64 Battalion Infantry when confronted with the situation made it clear that they were not ready to pay any bill.
It said, the Police, Military and the Prisons Service also had accumulated bills, all debited to the accounts of the Office of the President.
Some of the lines, according to the source had International Direct Dial (IDD) on them, making it possible for the "illegal" to abuse their use.
