The Atebubu-Amantin Municipal Assembly of the Brong-Ahafo Region has in recent times experienced the disappearance of huge sums of money from its coffers.
The latest one is the disappearance of over Gh?32,000 from the Municipality’s account at the ?Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) in Atebubu.
Investigation conducted by this Spyghana.com revealed that the withdrawal was made gradually between December 2012 and March 2013.
According to our investigations, one Richard Boateng, an accountant at the Municipality is allegedly behind the withdrawal in collaboration with some top officials at the municipality.
Since the discovery, Boateng has run away from the district and cannot be traced. The District Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Martey confirmed the case on phone to the Spyghana.com team.
He however, added that they are currently investigating the issue and therefore cannot disclose further details. Chief Superintendent Martey stated that they are currently looking for Rechard Boateng who bolted away after the incident was reported to the Police.
Investigation has shown that normally withdrawal of monies from the municipality account does not depend on one person, but rather it involves a process. Even though some District Chief Executives (DCEs) do not sign cheques, mostly they get to know any amount withdrawn from any of their accounts.
In most districts in Ghana, cheques go through the District Finance Officer (DFO) as well as the District Coordinating Director, and at times the DCE before withdrawals are made.
As a normal practice, any project with a budget of more than GH?50,000 must be approved by the Regional Co-coordinating Council (RCC) and projects more than Gh?100,000 must also be approved by Tender Review Board (TRB), which are the thresholds for the Assembly.
Our investigations however suggested that not all projects are made to go through the District Tender Committee for approval since such budgets are below the threshold.
In a telephone interview with the District Coordinating Director, Zakaria Salifu Yakubu he was not comfortable with questions being put to him on the issue and threatened to go to court if the story does not favor him. “If you write anything bad about me I will sue you,” he told the Spyghana.com team on phone.
He confirmed they do not know the where about of Richard Boateng but explained that after the incident they reported to the Police for further investigation and necessary action.
“If we were not interested in the case we would not have reported to the Police,” Yakubu added.
Watch this space as we search deeper into the matter for solutions.
Contact: sarpong007@gmail.com
