… $40,000 spent on ‘chichinga’ & ‘apio’ while $5,000 was expended on ‘official bonking’

By Peter Kojo Apisawu

A forensic audit report Daily Post has chanced upon has blown the cover of certain key figures associated with the erstwhile Kufuor Government who, by their avariciousness and vaunting desire to covet for themselves ill-gotten wealth, had raped and nearly run down the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB). Painstaking investigations by Daily Post have established that some top guns in the former ADB management had abused the imprest and IOUs systems for their selfish interests to the extent that as much as $40,000 was allegedly spent on ‘chichinga,’ ‘apio’ (meat and local hard liquor, respectively) while $5,000 was expended on ‘official bonking,’ a source told this reporter. “They were just spreading and stuffing the ladies; bought them chichinga, apio and anything they requested for after which they b****d them,” was how a source described the profligate expenditures by these former officials. The ADB’s General Manager, Finance, Mr S. N. K. Davor has revealed that he authorised the Head of Accounts Department, Mr Samuel Dako to use a whopping GH¢5,000.00 on a three-member team for their “lunch and transport.” Daily Posthas established that in the course of the audit of the ADB House Branch for the year 2009, it was uncovered that various cash payments, in US Dollars and also in Ghana Cedis, had been made at various times to some senior staff as imprest and IOUs.

These amounts had mainly been debited to (paid out of) the branch’s Settlement Suspense Account number 150090100. The transactions, according to the forensic audit report, did not follow the “laid down procedures for the disbursement and accounting for imprest.”

Further investigations therefore were carried out on these abnormal transactions, with the view to, as much as possible, identifying the staff who collected the monies from the branch, and also establishing, where possible, the ultimate beneficiaries of these cash withdrawals.

According to the Internal Audit Report of ADB, titled, “Report On Investigations Into Some Unusual US Dollars And Ghana Cedis Cash Withdrawals From ADB House Branch,” dated August, 2009, and signed by the Chief Internal Auditor, P. C. N. Sanggber-Dery, some officials of the bank at the time indulged in financial malfeasances. At the center of this scandal are the Head of Accounts, Mr Leon Bannerman-Williams; and the General Manager, Finance, Mr S. N. K. Davor.

The rest are the Head of Treasury, Mr K. Antto-Kwakwa and Mr Samuel Dako, who acted as Head of Accounts during a period when the substantive head was away, and who, during that period also collected some amount as imprest, according to checks conducted by Daily Post. The modus operandi are that staff of the branch, usually the Branch Manager or the Operations Officer, receives a telephone call, or an oral instruction, from the head office staff to come along with a stated amount of US Dollars or Ghana Cedis as imprest or IOU to the head office staff. The branch staff goes along with the cash (dollars or cedis) to the office of the official. The official endorses the back of the pink debit voucher and takes the cash for whatever purpose. At the accounting stage, the branch staff is told by the head office official, the account(s) to debit in order to reverse the amount that had earlier been taken from the Suspense Account. The branch staff then passes the entries and fills the General Ledger entry advice form and sends a copy to the official in head office.

According to the forensic audit report, “In some cases no such advice form is completed, thus leaving the debit cash (pink debit) voucher as the only document that serves as evidence of the transaction in the records of the branch. In some cases too, even the pink debit voucher cannot be found…”

This paper can authoritatively confirm that there are four transactions for a total amount of US $35,660.00 in respect of which the vouchers have not been located. The amounts collected by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) hirelings and hawks at a time ranged from US $2,000 to US $80,000 and from GH¢3,000 to GH¢30,000. The total amount stolen by these miscreants stood at USD $575,660.00 and GH¢101,000.00. Most of the cash was received, and the related pink debit vouchers endorsed, by Mr Leon Bannerman Williams, Head of Accounts Department.

Some of the staff who collected the cash did not endorse the pink debit vouchers as required.

Some of the narrations and accounts used in accounting for the imprest and IOUs (during reversals), according to Daily Post’s investigations, “were difficult to link up.” “Most of the reversal entries, however, ended up in the Advert and Corporate Relations (in the books of head office), and Interest on Fixed Deposit Account in the books of Treasury Department,” the forensic report said. Daily Posthas learnt that in reversing the imprest, the branch staff did not make proper reference to the earlier transactions to aid tracking of the original transactions, especially the original transaction date. However, Mr Leon Bannerman Williams, in written responses to a memo from the Chief Internal Auditor, and another addressed to then Managing Director (MD), Mr Atuahene, explained that he withdrew those monies at the request and on the authority of the General Manager (Finance) and the former MD, who acknowledged receipt of same and that this could be verified from them.

According to the report, “Sixteen of the Request for Imprest Forms were signed by him [Mr Leon Bannerman Williams] as the person requesting the imprest, while one was signed by Mr Antto-Kwakwa as the person requesting the imprest.

This reporter has found out that all the seventeen forms were however signed by Mr Davor, approving of the amounts.

Furthermore, this paper can confirm that there was no indication on any of the forms to show that the forms were actually made available to the branch for the passing of the entries at the time the imprest was being paid. “It would appear the forms were kept away somewhere and only brought out at this time, whereas they should have been part of the day’s transactions and vouchers for each of the day that the imprest was taken,” the report added. The Managing Director, Mr Atuahene was said to have approved an amount of US $387,699.42 to be paid out as bonus, specifying that a third of the amount, being USD $130,000.00 should be paid to partner agents of the bank. Daily Posthas sighted a memo that conveys the approval of the then Managing Director, Mr Atuahene, for an amount of US $387,699.42 to be paid out as bonus, specifying that a third of the amount, being US $130,000.00 should be paid to partner agents of the bank.

Investigations by this paper has brought to the fore that the said memo had originated from the Head, Money Transfer & Remittances to the then MD, indicating that the amount of US $387,699.42 represented some unpaid commissions meant for PVI Inc. Daily Posthas found out that the bank did not require the services of PVI to undertake any diaspora promotion on its behalf. Consequently, Mr A. C. Kemavor, in a memo to the MD wrote “The prevailing agreement with Western Union Intl took effect 15th May, 2008. Since then, authorization has not been given to PVI Inc by this Bank to undertake any Diaspora promotion on our behalf. Consequently all commissions otherwise due the Company for their services have been held in a suspense account.”

According to Mr Kemavor, PVI did not deserve the amount and recommended that the amount be paid out as bonus to staff and sub-agents.

Daily Posthas further gathered that following the former MD’s endorsement of the recommendation, the General Manager, Finance minuted on same memo requesting the Head of Accounts to “…make available US $130,000.00 to the MD and transfer balance of US $257,699.42 to Income a/c.”

Read about some more startling revelations in subsequent editions.