Finance and Internal Auditor of GIISDEC on police bail
Two key officials, the Director of Finance, Prince Ofosu Baako, and the Internal Auditor, Francis Bekoe, of the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation (GIISDEC), have been released on police inquiry bail after their arrest by the Ghana Police Service.
The arrest followed a complaint lodged by Kwame Ado Asirifi, who accused them of embezzling his salary since 2020.
Confirming the incident, Kwame Ado Asirifi, the Deputy CEO of Operations at GIISDEC, stated that he complained to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service in August 2023 regarding inconsistencies between his pay slip and the amount disbursed by the finance ministry to the organization as his monthly salary.
According to Asirifi, he discovered that out of the GHS 26,091.20 released to GIISDEC as his basic salary, only GHS 14,732.20 was paid to him per month since he joined the company in October 2020.
He further explained that upon sighting a letter titled “Release of Funds for Compensation for Fourth Quarter 2022” signed by the CEO, he wrote a memorandum demanding an explanation for the shortfall.
Subsequently, during a management meeting, the Director of Finance (Prince Ofosu Baako) and the Internal Auditor (Francis Bekoe) admitted their involvement in the criminal conduct. Ofosu Baako, responsible for preparing the salary schedule, and vetted by Francis Bekoe, exonerated the CEO, admitting that they had been stealing the money without the CEO’s knowledge.
As of December 2023, the embezzlement was ongoing, with efforts to recover Asirifi’s stolen salaries of approximately GHS 40,000 proving futile.
GIISDEC has been facing worker agitation over conditions of service and mismanagement of public funds, with allegations of discrepancies in salary increments not reflecting in employees’ salaries, leading to millions of Ghanaian cedis unaccounted for.
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