Three employees of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and seven others have been arraigned at the High Court in Accra and charged for money laundering and stealing of over GH¢2.1 million worth of prepaid credits.

The employees are; Ali Nansii Shaibu, a computer programmer at the ICT Department at the Head office, Grace Gardiner, Chief Supervising Cashier of the ECG District office at Kasoa and Anthony D. K. Quaye a technician at the ECG district office in Kasoa.

The rest are Ibrahim Baba Adamu Technician at Ghana Electrometer Company, and Muntari Adamu, Gariba Awudu Misbaw, Kwasi Appiah Donkor, Eric Yaw Kyei and Augustina Laniyan who are all private vendors who sold ECG pre-paid power credit to the public.

They have been slapped with 20 charges which comprised of eight counts each of conspiracy and stealing and four counts of money laundering pleaded not guilty to charge.

Shaibu, who is the first accused person was admitted to bail in the sum of GHc4 million with two sureties to be justified.

While Grace Gardiner, Anthony D.K. Quaye, Ibrahim Baba Adamu, Muntari Adamu, Alfred Brown, Gariba Awudu Misbaw, Kwesi Appiah Donkor and Eric Yaw Kyei were each admitted to bail in the sums of GHC300, 000 with a surety each to be justified.

The 10th Accused Augustina Laniyan, was absent and was said to have submitted a medical report to the court for ill-health.

The Criminal Division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo has ordered the prosecution to file their first batch of disclosures.

“In view of this, counsel for the Republic is to file first batch of disclosures to be served on the accused persons and their lawyers on or before the next adjourned date to enable them prepare for their defence in this case,” the court directed.

ECG, in 2003, is said to have entered into a partnership agreement with various companies including Electrometer to provide pre-paid power distribution to customers across the country.

Brief facts

Per the brief facts of the case narrated to the court were that the complainant, Stephen Dodeah, is a District Manager of ECG Ltd. in the Volta Region.

It stated that, the 1st accused person, Ali Nansii Shaibu was a computer programmer at the Information and Communication Technology, Department of the ECG Head office, Accra.

The prosecution said, he was in charge of Monitoring and Overseeing the operations of the e-cash prepaid metering system as well as the office intermediary with GhanaElectrometer Company and responsible for resolving ICT related challenges in the power distribution system in the country.

The 2nd accused person, Grace Gardiner, it said was the Chief Supervising cashier of the ECG District Office in Kasoa. While the 3rd accused person, Anthony D.K. Quaye was a Technician at the ECG District Office in Kasoa.

The prosecution explained that the 4th accused person, Ibrahim Baba Adamu was a Technician at the Ghana Electrometer Company and the 5th accused, Muntari Adamu; 5th, Alfred Brown; 6th, Gariba Awudu Misbaw; 7th, Kwasi Appiah Donkor; 8th, Eric Yaw Kyci; 9th, and Augustina Laniyan, 10th, accused persons were all private vendors who sold ECG pre-paid power credit to the public.

Partnership

The prosecution said, in 2003, ECG entered into a partnership with a number of ICT Companies, including Ghana Electrometer Company to provide pre-paid power distribution to customers in the country.

“ECG designed customized meters for the reading of pre-paid credits, which were installed for customers, and customers were charged with pre-paid reloadable cards after credit had been electronically loaded on them,” the Prosecution noted.

It said, “ECG engaged the services of private vendors to sell the pre-paid power credits for the company and installed pre-paid dispensing software on their computers. The operations of the private vendors were monitored by the ICT Department of ECG at the Head Office in Accra.”

It stated that, in March, 2017, the Management of ECG received information that some private vendors in the Volta Region were selling more credits than the quota they had purchased, notwithstanding that their transactions were based on the e-cash pre-paid metering system.

Software manipulation

“Investigations conducted revealed that in August, 2016, the 1st accused travelled to Hohoe to resolve a pre-paid connectivity challenge for the 7th accused.

“It said, during the process, the 1st and 7th accused agreed that the 1st accused would manipulate the software and send pre-paid credits to the 7th accused to sell without the knowledge of the Hohoe District Office of the ECG; after which the 1st accused would delete the transaction from the software and they would share the proceeds of the transaction.

“The prosecution narrated that, as agreed upon, the 1st accused manipulated the system and sent prepaid credits to the 7th accused without following due process, leading to the dishonest sale of pre-paid credits from August 17, 2016 to March 1, 2017 to the tune of GHc199,351.60 without the knowledge of the Management of ECG and shared the proceeds.”

Similar deals

Again, the prosecution said “it was established that, from August 18, 2016 to March 1, 2017 the 1st accused agreed and entered into a similar deal with the same modus operandi with the 6th accused leading to a dishonest sale of pre-paid credits to the tune of GHc1,203,249.26 without the knowledge of the management of the ECG and shared the proceeds.

“With the same modus operandi, the 1st accused person agreed with and entered into similar deals with the 4th, 5th, 9th, 8th 10th, 2nd and 3rd accused persons at various periods respectively as indicated in the charge sheet, and cach time sharing the proceeds of the sale with his accomplices.

“The results of investigations disclosed that the accused persons dishonestly appropriated a total sum of GHc2,143,270.15 belonging to the ECG without the knowledge of its management. During interrogations, the accused persons admitted committing the offence and refunded an amount of GLIC 282,600.00.

Properties identified

The prosecution indicated that, the Police also retrieved one each of unregistered Toyota Highlander Station Wagon and Mercedes Benz saloon car from the 1st accused.

“The Police further identified two houses, one located at Amasaman and the other at Bohyen junction in Kumasi belonging to the 1st accused person as proceeds of crime,” it stated.

The prosecution stated that, based on these facts the accused persons have been arraigned before you for trial.