MONROVIA – What appears to be a long-standing syndicate involving several layers at the Ministry of Finance and Development planning has now been busted.
Sources at the Ministry of Finance told the FrontPageAfrica Sunday that the Comptroller and Accountant General of the Republic Janga A. Kowo busted the syndicate and immediately notified the management of the Bank in question – GN Bank to seize all transactions in the affected account.
It is also reported that the Comptroller General with the consent of Finance and Development Planning Samuel Tweah invited the National Security Agency to launch a full scale investigation in the matter. Six employees at the Ministry of Finance have been suspended including the Director of Treasury Services Madame Lorpu Sworh.
The investigation, according sources, has led to the arrest of the six individuals and also senior officials at the GN-Bank have been called in for questioning.
Sources say authorities at the Ministry of Finance became suspicious when transactions in the account ran far beyond the normal amount that is normally withdrawn from such account. There are reports that the account with the GN-BANK has been a government account long before the coming in of the CDC led government.
FrontPageAfrica has been hinted that up to L$6 million may have been withdrawn from the account.
The account is owned by the Ministry of MFDP for the purpose of salaries that are not credited to employees’ account to be returned to the government due to either account name mismatch, wrong account number, duplicated entries, etc on the payroll, and rejected by bank system as invalid during automated processing. Normally, when that is done, an official advice is sent to MFDP with the details. The Ministry then issues a check to the employee to draw their salary against the account after reconciling with the parent institution.