Accra, Dec. 18, GNA - An Accra Circuit Court on Tuesday granted bail to Mr. Gyeni Sampong, the immediate past Bursar of the Presbyterian Boys Secondary School (PRESEC), Legon in a sum one of billion cedis with two sureties and one to be justified. Mr Sampong was remanded into prison custody for allegedly stealing more than 2 billion cedis belonging to the school.
He is to report every Monday to the Police as well as deposit his passport with the police. Besides, the property for the surety should not be less than one billion cedis.
Mr. Sampong is facing one count for stealing public property and would reappear on December 2, 2007. He pleaded not guilty to the charge. The facts of the case are that the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) made a report to the Greater Accra Regional Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for Mr Sampong to be arrested for stealing monies belonging to the school. After preliminary investigations he was charged. In a hand written letter to the Audit Report Implementation Committee of the GES, Mr Sampong accepted the findings of an audit team which he had, up till then rejected and promised to refund the money. The letter which was co-signed by Mr Joseph Jecty Asare, the immediate past Headmaster as a witness and the former Bursar proposed to pay the money in instalment starting with a 70 million cedis down payment at the end of November. After that he would pay the rest in instalment of 10 million cedis every month. Following allegations of impropriety against the Bursar, the GES set up a Committee of inquiry to probe the affairs of the school. The committee which was chaired by Mr Charles Antwi Konadu, A Deputy Chief Internal Auditor of the GES, after preliminary investigations recommended among others, that the school's accounts be audited from the 2002/2003 academic year to August 2006. Other recommendations of the committee, which was commissioned by the then Director of Education for the Greater Accra Region, Mrs Akosua Adu, included the transfer of the Bursar and the redeployment of the headmaster.
The report which was completed on December 27, 2006 concluded that the Bursar succeeded in wilfully suppressing revenue to the tune of 2,030,942,525.00 and that the amount be retrieved in full from the Bursar and paid into the school's bank account and appropriate disciplinary action taken against Mr Sampong.
