BOST recovers diverted GH¢1.6m

The acting Managing Director of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Limited (BOST), Mr John Arkorful, says the company has recovered the GH¢1.6 million which was diverted into a private account by a group of fraudsters.

The money, which was diverted into a falsified account by a former national service person of the company and four other accomplices in 2011, was refunded to the company in January, 2012, after the bank involved had detected the anomaly.

“The bank involved in the whole transaction, in its correspondence to us in 2012, indicated that it had transferred the total amount involved into BOST accounts and we have carried out an audit to confirm its assertion,” Mr Arkorful told journalists in Accra yesterday.

Addressing a news conference following a police report which suggested that the company had been defrauded, Mr Arkorful said because of the incident, BOST had overhauled its accounting systems.

He said a standard audit had also been carried out, while the reconciliation of accounts was done on a daily basis, as against the weekly and monthly reconciliation which used to be the case in the past.

“As part of our major security reforms to avert future recurrence, we have installed closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras and fingerprint detecting devices in our finance department,” Mr Arkorful added.

He assured the public that the incident had not caused BOST to lose a pesewa of the taxpayer’s money.

He expressed optimism that the suspects, who had since been arrested by the police, would be made to face the full rigours of the law.

The Police arrested Frank Eshun, 44, who, in 2011, had posed as a national service person posted to BOST with service number NSSGUG3O6811 bearing the name Ato Kwamina Ghartey, to gain entry into the company.

According to the police, Eshun, who was assigned to the company’s finance department, managed, with the help of his accomplices, on three occasions to divert GH¢1.6 million into a falsified account bearing the name BOST Oil Company.

One of the suspects, who later visited the offices of BOST to report an alleged case of forgery, was arrested on the company’s premises, while the other three accomplices were picked up from their various hideouts in Accra and Takoradi.

Source: Daily Graphic