[ 2009-11-09 ]

Attorney General fires up
Following a series of legal blunders at her outfit, the
Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Betty
Mould-Iddrisu, appears adequately prepared to strike at a
number of personalities over financial misdemeanours- two of
whom are Messrs. Ebenezer Lomotey and Rex Danquah.

The two, Ebenezer Lomotey, an official of the Sports
Ministry and Rex Danquah, CEO of the Local Organising
Committee (LOC) for the 2009 African Hockey Tournament, have
been cited for allegedly withdrawing unexpended amounts of
money to the tune of GH˘72,141.50 from the LOC Hockey
Accounts at the Ministry of Youth and Sports through a ghost
transaction.

The suspects in the case, who were arrested, are on police
enquiry bail following their alleged admission of the
offence and are reporting twice a week- Tuesdays and
Thursdays- to the Police as investigations continue.

Documents chanced upon by DAILY GUIDE suggest that upon
discovering that the LOC accounts at the Bank of Ghana held
unspent amounts of money, the two persons, alongside others,
allegedly conspired to find a way of siphoning the funds for
their personal use.

The first move, after meeting over the plot, was to get a
company to facilitate the withdrawal of the money from the
Bank of Ghana.

A certain Herbert Perbi, a Principal Auditor of the Audit
Service on secondment to the Ghana Education Service (GES),
was contacted to assist in that direction.

Mr. Perbi’s first move was to renew an enterprise
registration of his company, IBERP Enterprise, dormant,
until the renewal.

A bank account was opened at the International Commercial
Bank’s Makola Branch with accounts number 10260259504 in the
name of IBERP Enterprise, sources said.

The plot allegedly was to fake supplies of furniture and
other office equipment, to which five cheques were issued
covering a range of items on an accompanying number of
vouchers.

The vouchers were sent to a certain Jones Ocloo for
verification and processing, after Rex Danquah allegedly
authorized the fake transaction.

The next action was to have the cheques lodged into the
account of Mr. Perbi’s IBERP Enterprise at the Makola
Branch of the International Commercial Bank.

Having done this, the alleged conspirators, Messrs Magnus
Rex Danquah, Ebenezer Lomotey, Jones Ocloo and Herbert
Perbi, assembled at Mr. Lomotey’s office at the Ministry of
Youth and Sports to deliberate on the order of sharing the
proceeds.

A formula was allegedly adopted in withdrawing the money as
follows:

1. Mr. Magnus Rex Danquah- GH˘25,000
2. Mr. Ebenezer Lomotey- GH˘10,000
3.Mr. Jones Ocloo- GH˘10,000
4. Mr. Herbert Perbi GH-˘10,000
5.Set aside for external auditor to Lomotey- GH˘10,000
6. VAT returns (fake) to Perbi-GH˘7,141.50
Total GH-˘72,141.50

DAILY GUIDE gathered that the cheques for withdrawing the
money were not issued in bulk to any of the conspirators.

Mr. Perbi was noted to have issued between three to four
cheques to each of the alleged conspirators and post-dated
these to be cashed now and then. By the time investigations
commenced, the following details were available:

1. GH˘3200.00 was stolen, of which Mr. Lomotey took
GH˘2000.00 and Perbi GH˘1200.00

2. GH˘700.00 was taken by Perbi.

3. GH˘8,350.00 cashed by Perbi and sent to Rex Danquah
through Lomotey.

The suspects have been made to refund the amounts they
withdrew so far including the tax component deducted in
favour of IBERP Enterprise.

An amount of GH˘15,928.00 was retrieved and paid into the
LOC 2009 Hockey Account as the balance stands frozen in the
International Commercial Bank account belonging to IBERP
Enterprise.

Rex Danquah, a renowned event manager, made the headlines
recently when after organizing a fundraising activity for
the Ghana Football Association (GFA), he failed to release
the money realized from the event.
When DAILY GUIDE contacted Mr. Danquah, he declined to
comment on the subject.

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