We'll not shield anyone found culpable - Lands Commission on arrest of staff over GH¢100m theft

The Land Commission has promised not to shield any staff who is found to have been engaged in any act of illegality, assuring that any staff whose actions are deemed to be in contravention of the law will be handed over to the appropriate authorities for the law to take its course.

In a press release issued on Wednesday, March 1, the Lands Commission detailed how internal investigations it embarked on led to the uncovering of a GH¢100 million misappropriation by some staff members.

It disclosed that the investigations form part of efforts to ensure an effective land administration system and reduce corruption and other forms of illegalities.

It promised to collaborate with National Security and relevant institutions to ensure that the staff members are dealt with in accordance with the law.

“The Commission wishes to state emphatically that the investigations leading to the arrest and/or prosecution of some staff of the Commission, as well as the ongoing investigations, were at the instance of the Management of the Commission.

“This is part of the Commission's broader efforts to protect the integrity of the Commission and protect the interest of clients who access the services of the Commission, and the country at large,” parts of the statement read.

“The Commission wants to assure the general public that it will not shield any staff of the Commission, and will continue to work with the national security apparatus to ensure that all persons found culpable in this matter are made to face the full rigors of the law.

“We wish to assure Ghanaians that the Commission, under the current administration, is committed to efficient and effective land administration that is anchored on the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and candor, in the public interest.

The Commission also confirmed during a press conference that it is in the process of setting up a robust system software for its dealings after some staff was busted for stealing GH¢100 million from their previous in-house made open system.

Deputy Executive Secretary, Jones Ofori-Boadu explained how rigorous the new system will be designed to deal with incidents of thievery, adding that they await approval from the Finance Ministry to commence the process of implementing the system.

"What we are going to do is to make sure that, that platform is a very robust platform that will sit on an enterprise proprietary software system. And that platform should be more robust than the one we developed in-house which was sitting on an open source. So that is the decision management has taken and I'm sure very soon...we are at the point of getting approval from the Ministry of finance. And once we get that the process will kick start."

He further stated that the software has components that will aid the management to transfer manual data into a digital format.

"...It comes in different components and one of the components is dealing with the development of a system which is the software we will be using to move all the data from the manual to the digital environment."

The Land Commission also confirmed that 10 of its employees have been interdicted out of the 16 people busted by the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).

Background

National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) officials reportedly arrested 16 people involved in stealing about 500 draft cheques meant for the Land Commission of Ghana.

According to a news report by the Daily Guide newspaper, the 16 suspects were part of a 21-member syndicate involved in stealing cheques worth around GH¢100 million belonging to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The report indicated that the suspects were arrested between January 2023 and February 2023 after a petition was filed against them for crimes they committed from 2021 to 2023.

KPE