Millions of cedis lost through deals at district assemblies

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) says an ongoing investigation into the activities of the various district assemblies have uncovered massive acts of financial malpractices that have cost the nation millions of cedis.

It says most of these acts were committed with the connivance of staff from the assemblies and in some instances by top management personnel.

The Executive Director of the SFO, Mr. Bia Dela Akpadji, revealed these in Kumasi at the mid-year review meeting for civic educators drawn from all the regions.

The meeting was on the theme 'Enhancing the capacities of civic educators for an effective and account able governance in Ghana and sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat based in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Akpadji cited the waste, construction, supply and procurement as some of the areas that were mostly abused by the staff.

For instance, he said, some of the assemblies were dealing with waste management companies that had not been registered and did not even have bank accounts.

Some companies were owned by the same officers who manage the finances of the assemblies.

Mr. Akpadzi again cited many instances of low performance, short delivery and in some cases, non delivery, and forgery as some of the pervasive acts of corruption at the various district assemblies.

He said the nation was losing thousands of cedis daily because people paid to work had failed to discharge their responsibilities.

According to him, this would continue to go on if the public failed to mend their morale backgrounds.

He said the NCCE could assist in educating the public on the impacts of these acts on the nation and appeal to their conscience.

Until then, he said, the country would always have to grapple with some of these problems at different levels.

Mr. Laary Bimi, Commissioner of NCCE, said though the nation had made giant strides and was in the process of consolidating its democratic gains, the inability of Ghanaians to stand up for the truth could derail that.