39 Ghana Post employees embezzle over GH¢1m

THIRTY-NINE employees of the Ghana Post Company have allegedly embezzled funds amounting to GH¢1,016,572 belonging to the company.

The money was allegedly embezzled by the employees in the Ashanti, Western, Volta, Brong-Ahafo, Greater Accra, Eastern and Central regions between 2005 and 20I2.

The highest case of embezzlement was detected in the Ashanti Region, where an employee, Ms Louisa Agyemang, is reported to have embezzled GH¢357,153 of  Western Union funds.

Ms Agyemang, who has so far refunded GH¢2,000, is currently standing trial at an Accra Circuit Court.

 A document sighted by the Daily Graphic indicated that while majority of the suspects were alleged to have embezzled Western Union funds, others were indicted for missing counterfoil receipts and stealing school fees paid by students of senior high schools.

According to the document, some employees were also found to have duplicated Ghana Post cheques, stolen and tampered with express mail and printed fake postage stamps.

The company, it said, further detected that the rest of the employees had impersonated other workers, embezzled Instant Money Transfer (IMT) funds and were responsible for missing EMS receipts.

The document explained that while Ghana Post had summarily dismissed some employees for vacating their post, others were on the run after their cases were referred to the police for investigation.

It said the company had resorted to court action to retrieve the money from the affected employees.

So far, the document indicated, GH¢94,453 had been refunded by the employees, while GH¢923,535 was still outstanding.

When contacted, the General Manager in charge of Corporate Services and Marketing at Ghana Post, Mr Kwabena Otuo-Acheampong, confirmed the fraudulent deals to the Daily Graphic.

He, however, declined further comment because some of the cases were still under investigation.
“I am aware many such cases have been recorded in some of the regions where colossal sums of money have been embezzled,” he said.

He said Ghana Post was also conducting detailed auditing of its accounts and would make public the findings as and when they were available.

SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Mon July 16, 2012