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Two officials at the Keta Government Hospital have been found to have stolen GH¢576,000 from the hospital’s internally generated funds meant to buy drugs and other logistics to serve the Keta Community.
The revelations were made at Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee sitting Thursday where audited accounts of the Health Ministry were examined.
Mr. Asilenudzi Hayford and his assistant Mr. Francis Dagbale altered 96 signed cheques by changing the original figures and words on the already signed cheques.
Through this method, they managed to withdraw higher amounts than originally indicated on the cheques.
The shocking fraud occurred between January 2010 and May 2011.
After an audit found GH¢264,000 to have been unaccounted for, further checks into the expenses in 2010 showed a shortfall of another GH¢ 312,000.
Management has had a very difficult time trying to retrieve the monies. Although Francis Dagbale was prosecuted, a judge ordered that they refund 25,000 or face a 10-year jail sentence.
They paid the fine with cheeky ease, parliament was told to the shocking reaction of MPs.
Management of the hospital says they are struggling to institute a civil action against the two officials and have been left frustrated by the courts and the Attorney-General’s department.
The Keta Municipal Government Hospital has also been struggling with accommodation for the officials and logistics. In August 2015, the Member of Parliament for Keta, Mr. Richard Quashigah donated three patient monitors worth GH¢30, 000 to the hospital.
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