BY : DARI KWABENA MATHEW (+233555395925)
The Inspector General of the Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, has disclosed that one of the officers in charge of the missing CFA 190,000 retrieved from suspects is nowhere to be found.
The fake currency, currently missing, was retrieved by the police from some suspects in 2016.
According to the IGP, the said officer in charge of the money has resigned from the service, making it difficult for the police to retrieve the money.
He added that the other two officers have been interdicted and are being investigated by the police.
The revelation was made known when the IGP appeared before the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, January 19, 2023.
“It was sent back to the team at Tarkwa CID office. But honourable chair, there has been confusion as to who received it and the whereabouts of the money. And when it came to our attention, we identified three police officers who were involved in the matter. Unfortunately, one of them has resigned from the Service, and we are making efforts to look for him to be held accountable. All of them have been interdicted, and the matter referred to the Police Professional Standard Bureau to conduct investigation to know the whereabouts of the fake CFA190, 000.00,” the IGP said.
He further explained that initial checks by the police detected the fake currency when it was sent to Ivory Coast for authentication.
“Initially the arresting officers in their initial accounts realised that it was CFA 40,000.00, but in the course of investigations, that was what was documented for the auditors’ to be privy to. But the police on our own investigations realised that it was more than CFA40,000.00, it was CFA190,000.00. That CFA 190,000.00 was brought from Tarkwa CID headquarters to Côte d’Ivoire to authenticate for us, as to whether it being genuine or otherwise. And the results with the accompanying appendix indicated that they were all fake,” the IGP clarified.
The IGP disclosed that efforts to have the US$8,100.00 which was sent to the United States through the US Embassy in Ghana for authentication had proved futile.
“The Divisional CID, Tarkwa, disclosed that cash exhibits of US$8,100.00 and CFA 40,000.00 [CFA190,000.00] retrieved from suspects in 2016 in the case of The Republic versus Nana Akakpo and three others were not available for our audit verification,” this was contained in the 2020 Auditor General’s report.
He admitted being embarrassed over the delay in getting feedback on the US$8,100.00 from the US Embassy in Ghana.
“I’m equally being embarrassed by that because I think some of these things we shouldn’t allow them to linger on for a long time, so we will keep engaging the authorities to give us the feedback. We can assure you that we will learn the relevant lessons,” the IGP assured.
The committee charged the police to produce the exhibit for inspection so that disciplinary action could be taken against the officer.
“The Divisional CID in charge should immediately produce the exhibit for our inspection, failure by which the total sum should be recovered from him and disciplinary action also taken against him,” the report warned.
