ACCOUNTANT NABBED FOR POSTING GHOST NAMES ON PAYROLL

8/08/2008
Story: Mary Mensah
AN accountant at the head office of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), who allegedly posted 16 ghost names on the payroll of his employers, has been arrested by the La Police in Accra.
The suspect, Kofi Nudokpo Tordzagbo, 39, was arrested together with two accomplices at the Trade Fair branch of the Barclays Bank in Accra where they had gone to cash the June salaries.
Between April and May, this year, the suspects were said to have managed to cash GH¢27, 210 out of GH¢75, 581 which was paid into different accounts at the Barclays Bank by the Controller and the Accountant General’s Department.
The accomplices are Godwin Wonder, 40 and Christian Dzamade, 25, both unemployed.
According to the La District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Richard Gyebi, all the three suspects were family members from Akatsi in the Volta Region.
He said on June 6, 2008, Godwin and Christian went to open new accounts at the Trade Fair branch of the Barclays Bank with photocopies of their voter ID cards.
He said the two left the bank after the branch manager refused and asked them to produce the original copies of the ID cards.
After that nothing was heard from them until June 30, 2008 when they resurfaced at the bank with the original ID cards with a letter introducing them as new employees from the GHA.
After careful examination of the letter, the branch manager suspected it to be fake so he ordered their arrest by the bank’s security who later handed them over to the police.
When they were searched five voter ID cards bearing the same picture but under different names, two cheques one bearing the names Addison Aikins and Christian Dzamadi and social security forms also filled with different names were found on them.
Upon interrogation they broke down and confessed that it was their brother who was an accountant at the GHA, who inserted their names on the payroll and asked them to cash the money for him for a fee.
While investigations were on-going, Tordzagbo appeared at the police station on July 2, 2008 to bail out the suspects and he was subsequently arrested.
Investigations revealed that between March and June, 2007, Tordzagbo, who is also the liaison officer, managed to prepare new entrants forms for new employees, forged signatures of his superior officers and forwarded them to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department for processing.
The usual practice was that all new entrants’ imputs or forms should pass through the Treasury at the Ministry of Transport, but that of the 16 new employees never passed there because Tordzagbo managed to the get the stamps of the ministry and the appropriate signatures through forgery.
When the names of the 16 ghost employees were taken to the Barclays Bank for their statements, it turned out that Godwin had seven accounts with different branches of the bank while Christian had seven accounts.
Between April and June this year, monies paid into the accounts of the 16 ghost employees totalled GH¢75, 581 and out of this amount the suspects were said to have been able to cash GH¢27, 210 at the time of their arrest.
The accounts have been frozen while investigations continue.