The management of the Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU) in the Upper East Region has been instructed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament to recover GH 376,244.22 paid to one Emmanuel Akay, a lecturer with a fake certificate.
The lecturer who was using a fake master’s degree credential reportedly received such an amount, according to the 2021 Auditor General’s Report.
From October 2015 to September 2021, Emmanuel Akay is alleged to have used the fraudulent certificate to earn the amount from the university as a lecturer.
The report detailed that Mr. Akay was unable to graduate from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) because of his outstanding project work, so he made a phoney certificate and submitted it to the school for recognition.
At a public hearing to investigate financial irregularities that were raised in the 2021 Auditor General Report in Tamale, the regional capital of the Northern Region, the Chairman of PAC, Dr. James Klutse Avedzi, issued a directive to the university to retrieve the money from the lecturer with immediate effect or face additional charges for financial losses to the state.
In response, Prof. Samuel Erasmus Alnaa, Vice-Chancellor of the Bolgatanga Technical University, stated that the victim had been listed as a wanted person by the Economic Organised Crime Office (EOCO) after all efforts by the university to get him to pay the money had failed.
He added that in the university’s quest to retrieve the money from him, he threatened the University once more by using a fictitious law firm.
The PAC has begun public hearings in Tamale to consider the 2021 Auditor General’s reports referred to the committee.
They include the report of the Auditor General on universities and polytechnics and all pre-university educational institutions in the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Savannah, and North East regions cited in the report for the period ending December 31, 2021.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Gilbert Azeem Tiroog|Ghana
