The five-member Committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate alleged acts of corruption, misconduct and misbehaviour by the three commissioners, has asked the sacked Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Operations at the Electoral Commission, Amadu Sulley, to refund some GHC 320, 822 which went missing under his watch.
“The Committee held that at least an amount of GHS320, 822 remained unaccounted for the consumables used for the primaries of the political parties in 2015, and that up to date, the remaining GHS360,000 has still not been paid into the EC’s account created in 2015 for that purpose, which they allege is still with the Chief Accountant for ‘safe keeping’,â€
The committee reports also recommended that Chief Accountant at the EC, Kwaku Owusu Agyei-Larbi, be made to pay the Commission an amount of GHS360, 000 which he claimed was still in his custody for safe keeping.
Committee's full report of Amadu Sulley
The allegations that were levelled against Amadu Sulley included the fact that he treated political parties’ primaries as a private commercial project with funds paid directly into the personal accounts of key staff for functions to be performed for party primaries.
“After witness statements from the Chairperson herself against Alhaji Sulley, the Director of Finance at the EC, Joseph Kwaku Asamoah, the Director of Elections of the NDC party, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, among others, and the respondent, Amadu Sulley himself, the committee established that the “NDC paid over GH¢5 million in cash for its primaries to the EC and the NPP paid GH¢233,270 and GH¢276,600 for its presidential and parliamentary primaries respectively and that as the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations, Alhaji Sulley had the oversight responsibility over the Electoral Services Department and directly supervises the operations of the said department,â€
The committee established that Amadu Sulley defied all the known prudent financial administration practices and took over GH¢5 million in cash and kept same in the custody of some individuals.
The committee report established that Amadu Sulley allowed more than GH¢6 million received on behalf of the EC to be handled in a manner that decried any reasonable and prudent accounting principles, leaving room for fraud and misapplication of the money.
“Though in the midst of investigations of how the money was managed, the Commission opened an account for internally generated funds in December 2015, the Deputy Head of the Electoral Services Department was holding onto GH¢360, 000 in cash until 2016 when the Director of Electoral Services claimed it was deposited with the chief accountant for ‘safe keepingâ€.
The five-member committee also established that there was gross financial mismanagement which opened the commission to fraud and misappropriation of money.
Again, election materials belonging to the EC could not be accounted for, since no proper records were kept as to how those items were procured from the commission’s stores.
The report held that Amadu Sulley demonstrated that he lacked the skill and ability to perform his duties as the head and supervisor of the commission’s operations.
The committee concluded that at least an amount of GH¢320,822 remained unaccounted for the consumables used for the primaries of the political parties in 2015 and that up to date, the remaining GH¢360, 000 had still not been paid into the EC’s account created in 2015 for that purpose, which they alleged was still with the chief accountant for ‘safe keeping.’
“The other allegation that the committee investigated was that the Deputy Chairperson in charge of Operations had persistently instructed officials to carry out illegal vote transfers on the Voter Management System in clear breach of the law and operational policies of the Commission,â€Â the report disclosed.