Ansa-Asare Case: Moneys were paid into Director's account

Accra, Sept 14, GNA - A former Accountant of the Ghana School of Law (GSL), one Mr Wutor on Wednesday said monies allocated for the purchase of books to the GSL were paid into the personal Stanbic account of Mr Kwaku Ansa-Asare, Director of the School.

He said he complied with this practice because he did not want to be seen as questioning the integrity of the Director. Mr Wutor, who appeared before the five-member Committee investigating allegations of corruption and abuse of office against Mr Ansa-Asare, said on one occasion, 128 million cedis, which was to be paid to Butter Worths Tolley for the supply of books was rather paid into the personal account of Mr Ansa-Asare.

Mr Wutor could not tell whether the books were ever supplied or the money was ever paid to Butter Worths Tolley.

Mr Wutor said Mr Ansa-Asare often ordered him to issue cheques for payment with the explanation that it was a decision taken by the General Legal Council.

He said one Mary Dei whom he knew as an associate of Readwide, Mr Ansa-Asare's book supplying company, was once introduced to him by Mr Ansa-Asare as an agent of Butter Worths Tolley.

Mr Wutor, who gave the breakdown of how 500 million cedis, which was provided by the Government in 2003 for Police Prosecutor's Course as well as Career Magistrate's Course with the first payment of 170 million cedis made to one Mary Dei on August 20, 2003.

He said Butter Worths Tolley was supposed to provide books for the courses adding that the second payment of 340 million cedis was made to Mary Dei within the same month.

Mr Wutor said although he was told by Mr Ansa-Asare that the books were given to the Police, he never established officially whether they were indeed supplied or not.

The Committee also established that Ms Irene Ansa-Asare, a daughter of Mr Ansa-Asare, had her name not appearing on the original registration list of the second batch of the year 2004 Post Call Law Students, although the name later appeared on the passed list of the same batch. The Committee however observed from documents they obtained from the school that whereas the name of one Owusu Kwabena Obuobi was present in the registration list, it did not appear in the passed list, while both lists were made up of seven students.

An earlier petition presented by Mr Maxwell Opoku Agyeman, a Lecturer at the GSL, stated that Irene had pursued the Post-Call course without the requisite qualification.

It also stated that apart from the fact that she never paid any fees, she also did not go through the appropriate registration procedures. Sitting continues on Thursday.