Sacked bank staff cries foul over fraud charge

The desire for justice by Moses Okrah-Opoku, an ex-employee of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), over what he called a wrongful dismissal by the bank, may take a long time to come, if ever, says The Weekend Statesman.

He has challenged his dismissal at a Sunyani High Court but from all indications, justice is on extended leave because the bank has shown no interest to present the prosecution with evidence.

Employed at the Techiman branch of the bank as Loans Assistant in 1986, Okrah-Opoku was among six employees dismissed in December 1999 over the theft of ?1bn between 1992 and 1994. He was accused of authorising the disbursement of unapproved loans and falsification of a signature as well as benefiting from the loans disbursement as a Secretary to one of the groups.

But nearly two years since the case was referred to the police, no charges have been preferred against him, supporting his view that he was merely set up as a convenient bait and that there is no way that a prima facie case can be made against him. He was dismissed for contravening "the Rules of Service and Pay for Senior Officers."

Okrah-Opoku, said he was never a senior staff of the bank and was not even in a position to authorise the disbursement of loans. He described his dismissal as a miscarriage of justice, supporting this with correspondence between himself and the bank.

Documents available to the paper indicate that the alleged malpractices took place between 1992 -1994 but it was not until 1999 that the bank brought up the issue. The bank's memo to Okrah-Opoku said that investigations conducted into the loans administration at the Techiman branch, revealed his complicity but he, in a response, denied any knowledge.

Okrah-Opoku said a host of frustrations led to his filing of a civil suit at the Sunyani High Court challenging his dismissal, but the case cannot proceed because he has not been cleared of the criminal allegations. The Attorney-General's office at the Brong Ahafo Region's intervention for the police to charge him upon his petition has also yielded no result.