A staff of the Controller and Accountants General’s Department has stolen more than 115,000 while on secondment at the Nursing and Midwifery Council in 2014.
This was contained in the Auditor-General’s report for 2015, currently before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.
The staff, Gilbert Kwesi Mensah Addison forged Bank of Ghana pay-in slips to make 115,882 cedis.
According to the report, Gilbert Addison admitted to stealing and explained he used the money to build a garage, one living room, one store room.
He also bought personal items and constructed a wall around his property in the Western Region.
He was charged by the Police but is still walking free.
The revelation is one of many recurring stories of stealing and misappropriation in the public sector as recorded annually by the Auditor-General.
Last April, Alex Smart, an auctioneer admitted to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), he earned a commission for no work done after the auctioning of 24 state vehicles in a manner the Auditor-General describes as irregular.
For 25 years, persons indicted by the Auditor-General have generally escaped prosecution.
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee usually questions officials named in the report and after huffing and puffing, little is done to punish officials engaged in mismanagement and corruption.
But a Supreme Court order last June, has charged the Auditor-General to surcharge indicted persons.
Article 187, Clause 7(b) (i) of the states: “…. the Auditor-General may disallow any item of expenditure which is contrary to law and surcharge the amount of any expenditure disallowed upon the person responsible for incurring or authorising the expenditure.
This is further stated in the Audit Service Act 2000 (Act 584) Section 17(1-2).
Since the Supreme Court order, the Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo has revealed, 11 persons have been asked to pay back monies lost to the state.
-Myjoyonline
(Selorm) | 
(Nana Kwesi)