Money Laundering At NVTI
A forensic audit commissioned by the Auditor-General into the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), has revealed a gargantuan fraud allegedly perpetrated by Dr Michael Yaw Boateng the interdicted director of the NVTI and Mr Emmanuel Jack Animi, a former chief accountant at the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
The auditing which was conducted by Baffour Awuah and Associates, and submitted to the Auditor-General, Mr Edward Dua Agyeman, in March 2004, exposes how, at the request of Alhaji Mohammed Mumini, former Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, an amount of ¢8 billion was fraudulently transferred by the Ministry of Finance into a secret account at BoG for use of NVTI, when the total budgeted estimate for NVTI was only ¢3.1 billion.
The report also cites Mr Victor Selormey, the former Deputy Minister of Finance, as having facilitated the releases of these funds to NVTI, in contravention of the Financial Administration Regulation (LI) (1234). The report stated that between April 2000 and September 2000, a total of ¢13 billion was released to NVTI out side its budgetary allocation from the Ministry of Finance, at the request of Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, then Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, and authorised by Mr Victor Selormey, the then Deputy Finance Minister.
Out of this amount, ¢5 billion was paid into NVTI, bank account at the Bank of Ghana. The balance of ¢8 billion was fraudulently transferred into a secret account, operated by Dr Michael Yaw Boateng and Emmanuel Jack Animi. By two letters dated March 20, and August 2000, the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare requested ¢10.1 billion and ¢10.5 billion, respectively, for the same purpose, and addressed them to the Minister of Finance.
As a result of these letters, amounts of ¢5 billion and ¢8 billion, respectively, were released under the authority of Mr Victor Selormey, to the Director of NVTI. The auditors report that out of the ¢5 billion, a total amount of over ¢2.2 billion was fraudulently paid to suppliers for goods they did not supply to the institute.
According to the auditors, they could also not vouch the authenticity of the disbursement of the balance of almost ¢2.8 billion.
Furthermore, the auditors cited the former Accountant General, Mr R.K. Tuffour, as having circumvented procedures by instructing the Director of Banking at the Bank of Ghana, to make a direct transfer of ¢8 billion into an NVTI account which has been found to be a secret account, without stating his authority for the direct transfer.
The auditors observed that the list of bank accounts provided by Dr Boateng, the Interdicted Director and Joseph Awuah Dapaah, the Interdicted Chief Accountant NVTI, did not include three (3) account.
These accounts turned out to be secret accounts, because they were not known by the Institute. Dr Boateng and Animi operated these secret accounts at the following banks:
1. Bank of Ghana 021-5660057003
2. SSB Bank Ltd, Acc. Main Branch 28342004
3. ADB, Ring Road, Central 0026073006
According to the auditors, the banks where the secret account were operates, could not produce the mandate for opening the aforementioned three accounts.