By William
Yaw Owusu
Friday
September 21, 2018
The immediate-past Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of
Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) under previous Mahama
administration is likely to face prosecution for alleged corruption.
Sedina Tamakloe Attionu, according to a forensic
audit report, allegedly misappropriated GH¢3,193,592 and is therefore expected
to account for the huge amount of money.
Ms Attionu and other former heads of six state-owned
agencies have been cited in the special forensic audit report which has since
been submitted to the Office of the Special Prosecutor, headed by former
Attorney General Martin A.B.K. Amidu.
Apart from MASLOC, Ghana National Gas Company
(GNGC), Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB), Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation
Company (BOST), Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and the Ghana Technology
University College (GTUC) have equally been cited in the forensic audit report
for alleged wrongdoing.
Documents available to DAILY GUIDE showed that
forensic audit was conducted by reputable international auditing firms into the
affairs of those agencies and others where massive looting of state resources
through procurements and deliberate stealing of money running into several
billion of Ghana cedis were detected.
According to the auditors, there were massive
breaches of the Public Procurement Law (Act 663, 2003) and the Public
Procurement (Amendment) Law (Act 914, 2016) and mentioned some of them as
“inflation of contracts sums and non-performance of contracts. Others include
non-enforcement and breach of contracts.”
The auditors also discovered “breach of the
provision of the Financial Administration Regulation, 2004 (L.I. 1802), such as
cash disbursement without authorization, deposit of public funds into personal
accounts and failing to account for accountable travelling allowances.”
Prior to the conduct of the forensic audit, there
were reports of massive corruption at MASLOC, with Sedina Tamakloe Ationu’s
name allegedly featuring prominently.
In the heat of the transition in 2017, an audit
report cited the ex-MASLOC boss for allegedly withdrawing GH¢500,000 belonging
to the agency.
According to the report, she allegedly invested the
funds in a private non-banking financial institution called Obaatanpa Microfinance
but reportedly failed to pay back the money into the stated accounts of MASLOC.
The report indicated that MASLOC invested the funds in
a 91-day fixed deposit with Obaatanpa Microfinance Ltd at an interest rate of
26% per annum in July 2014, but the former CEO allegedly wrote a letter on
August 28, 2014 instructing Obaatanpa to terminate the investment and pay back
the money.
It said that although there is evidence that the
amount was paid as directed by Sedina, there is no proof of the amount having
been paid back into the accounts of MASLOC.
"Mrs Sedina Tamakloe should be held responsible
for the refund of the amount of GH¢500,000 with interest in accordance with
regulations 61(5) of the Financial Management Act, 2003 (654),” the auditors
recommended.
According to the report, over GH¢2 million was
approved in 2016 for the implementation of sensitization programmes across the
country but that cannot be accounted for under Ms Attionu.
The report said based on the budget, MASLOC planned
outreach programmes in all 10 regions in 2016 and a budget of GH¢1,706,000 was
approved by the then MASLOC Board at its 27th general meeting held on April 26,
2016, for the implementation of those programmes.
Tricycles
Case
Another scandal that hit MASLOC, which is a microfinance
responsible for implementing the government’s pro-poor credit scheme, was the
award of contract for the supply of 1,000 tricycles to the tune of
GH¢10,000,000.
It meant that MASLOC charged the taxpayer GH¢10,000
per tricycle when on the open market it’s being sold at about GH¢5,000.
The contract was awarded on November 7, 2016, just
one month to the crucial general elections even though Ms Attionu wrote to the
Public Procurement Authority (PPA) as far back as May 4, 2016, for approval.
It is not clear if the contract was executed in view
of the change of government.
Documents showed that Crisjoe Company Limited, Spell
Trust Limited and IEL Logitistics Limited were the beneficiaries of MASLOC’s
alleged inflated contract through restricted tender.
Her lawyers, in a later to the media, warned all
those circulating the stories about corruption allegations against the ex-CEO, threatening
to sue for defamation.
Her lead counsel, Victor K. Adawudu, in a statement
issued at the time, disclosed that “the said publication contains statements
that are highly defamatory of our client and calculated to ridicule her person
in the eyes of decent-thinking people and society as a whole.”
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