Wa Police uncover pension fraud

The Wa Police have uncovered a suspected pension fraud syndicate operating at the Upper West Regional office of the Controller and Accountant General's Department (CAGD).

Disclosing this to the Ghana News Agency at Wa, the Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Inspector Daniel Dorkpoh said the syndicate allegedly uses the names of 'ghost' pensioners to collect pay from the banks. The syndicate however ran out of luck on July 4 this year when officials of the local branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank detected the suspicious behavior of a man at the counter and alerted the Police who arrested him. The suspect, Mark Zongnaa is alleged to have gone to the bank with a pensioner's identify card bearing the name of Joseph Salifu, a retired employee of the Department of Social Welfare. The card however had the embossed picture of Zongnaa. The suspect was alleged to have told the police that he was not a pensioner but a farmer. He mentioned Pascal Tiirow and Gambo Mumuni both employees of the regional office of the CAGD as those who prepared the identity card for him.

Inspector Dorkpoh said Tiirow and Mumuni are on the run and police have mounted a search for them while further investigations continue to determine the extent of the fraud.