Chairman, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, Dr. James Klutse Avedzi has directed that a former cashier of the Abeka District Court, Joseph Akulu surrenders himself to the Police for failure to pay the GHC74, 937court fees he embezzled.
The order by the chairman of PAC followed a plea by the Finance Director of the Ghana Judicial Service, Mrs. Vera Takyi who asked the committee to compel Mr. Akulu of the Judicial Service to hand himself over to the police for misappropriation of state funds.
Mrs. Takyi made the plea in the House on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, while responding to issues raised in the 2019 Auditor-General’s Report concerning the Judicial Service.
According to her, Mr. Akulu appeared before a disciplinary committee set up to probe into the incident and he (Akulu) promised to refund the money however he fled without fulfilling his promise.
Mrs. Takyi however stated that the Judicial Service has made significant efforts to curb issues of embezzlement when the committee raised such matters at the sitting.
“At our last appearance before this committee, we told the committee that we had put steps in place to stop this and one step was to make all cashiers have guarantors. Currently, we have bonded all cashiers in judicial service everyone is supposed to provide a guarantor so that we fall on these guarantors when these incidents happen.”
Dr. James Avedzi emphasized at the sitting of PAC on Tuesday saying “Joseph Akulu, if he is listening to this Committee, we are directing that he should just report himself to the Police so that we will have negotiations on how he can pay the money back to the Judicial Service.”
“That will be the best way to go. But if he thinks that he can hide, you will run away but you cannot hide permanently. You will be one day arrested,” Dr. Avedzi added.
The report examined revenue accounts of three courts and revealed that, in 2018, the cashiers collected a total cash revenue of GH¢685,743.96, however only GH¢487,701.70 was paid into the designated bank accounts with a difference of GH¢198,042.26 unaccounted for.
The report further stated that during the year under review Joseph Akulu misappropriated GHC74,937.00, while Erica Sarpong, a Cashier at the Kaneshie Court embezzled GHC 121,470.26, whereas that of Mr. Richard Ovulley, a Cashier at Donkorkrom Magistrate was GHC1,635.00.
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Source: Edith Odoom/ATLFMNEWS
