YEA beneficiary remanded for fraud

The Tuobodom District Magistrate Court in the Techiman North District of the Brong Ahafo Region on Wednesday, remanded a beneficiary of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Awuni Kwame Nelson, into prison custody for defrauding by false pretense.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge of defrauding by false pretense and is expected to reappear before the court on June 23, 2017.

According to the facts of the case as presented by the court, one Mr. Boampong Isaac, the district Monitoring and Evaluation Officer with the Youth Employment Agency who acted upon instructions of the Regional director of the YEA, Mr. Osei Boateng Michael explained that the accused one Mr. Kwame Nelson and a resident of Techiman was a beneficiary of the YEA and received an appointment letter in October 2016.

He said since October 2016, the accused after reporting to his post at Offuman Methodist Basic School has been a notorious absentee but continuously draw allowance, a development management took cognizance of.

On June 12 this year, he reportedly visited the school requesting for an assumption of duty letter to aid him go for the new arrears being paid to beneficiaries.

Headmaster of the Offuman Methodist School turned down his request on the basis that he had vacated post and wondered if he was still a beneficiary under the programme.

Determined to receive the allowance, the accused picked a copy of a similar letter from a friend, photocopied and then forged the signature of the headmaster.

He subsequently through his friend sent the forged document to Mr. Abdulai Shaibu, the headmaster of Bonya D/A basic school in a nearby community asking him to authenticate it with a stamp.

Suspecting the entire document had been forged, the headmaster drew the attention of the Monitoring and Evaluation officer on the actions taken by the accused.

An official complaint was lodged with the police leading to the arrest of the suspect and after interrogation and cautioning he admitted committing the offence and was arraigned before the court.

It would be recalled that the Agency recently stated that it has deleted the names of over 16,000 from its 63,000 beneficiaries payroll after an audit found out that their employment have been tainted with fraud.