ECG accounts officer before court for fraud
A former Accounts Officer of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Mr Ebenezer Teye Narteh, is facing trial at the Financial Division of the Accra Fast Track High Court for allegedly stealing and forging chequebooks to defraud the company to the tune of GH¢1,596,090.74.
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He faces 53 counts of stealing, 50 counts of forgery and one count of issuing false cheque.
Narteh pleaded not guilty to all the charges when he was arraigned last Friday.
The court was presided over by Mrs Justice Georgina Mensah Datsah.
He was granted bail in the sum of GH¢1.6 million with three sureties.
The case was subsequently adjourned to October 14, 2015.
Facts
Presenting the facts to the court, the Chief State Attorney, Mr Matthew Amponsah, said Narteh was an accounts officer in charge of the Obuasi district office of the ECG from 2004 to May 10, 2010.
He said investigations established that between 2007 and April 2010, Narteh used various methods to steal sums that amounted to the GH¢1,596,090.74.
Mr Amponsah said Narteh, who was responsible for paying workers’ claims, left gaps in-between figures and words of cheques and later inserted additional figures and stole the difference.
Also, he received money from ECG revenue collectors on the pretext of paying them to the bank and forged GCB Bank’s receipt stamps to endorse GCB pay-in slips which he presented, as if the money had been paid.
The court was told that Narteh substituted cheque payments from Anglogold Ashanti Company Limited and other corporate clients of the ECG with cash received from revenue collectors.
The prosecution said in May 2010, the management of the ECG detected the crime and caused a forensic investigation to be made, which uncovered the theft of GH¢1,596,090.74.
The accused subsequently resigned, admitted to the crime and offered to pay the amount involved, following which he issued a cheque for GH¢50,000 which turned out to be a dud one.
He was, therefore, arrested and prosecuted at the Circuit Court since 2010 but the case was transferred to the High Court after the ECG had filed a nolle prosequi.
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