General News of Saturday, 30 October 2010

Source: Daily Post

How Gcnet Stole State Money

…leader of stealing syndicate was trained by company to do so
…Deputy Managing Director & co part of stealing syndicate
…Management assists syndicate leader to escape to London

The least Ghana's security services, especially the BNI and the police, can do for
the ordinary Ghanaian the next forty-eight hours is arrest all the senior management
personnel of GCNet over their involvement in the stealing of billions of dollars
belonging to the state.
The senior management personnel, investigations reveal, have been breaking into the
main software of CEPS that processes documents on how much import duties importers
are supposed to pay to the state.
After breaking into the server, they reduced the figures of the amount importers are
to pay to the state to the barest minimum which they communicate to the importers,
their partners in this crime. Meanwhile, behind closed doors, the importers pay at
least half of the actual amount to be paid to these GCNet officials who pocket them.

The end result is that only a paltry sum goes to the state. A huge sum goes into the
pocket of the GCNet officials while the importers go home 'satisfied' that they had
paid far less for their imports.
This is invidious and unpatriotic act explains why both the erstwhile NPP government
and current NDC government have failed to realize their revenue targets year after
year.
Part of the intelligence picked up by this paper reveals that GCNET, formed in 2000,
really planned this robbery long ago when they employed the man who became the head
of the stealing syndicate, Elliot Ansah who until August this year was a highly
placed manager in the company.
Elliot Ansah was employed by GCNET even though he was the least qualified among a
group of interviewees.
The South African institute where he was sent to be trained is said to have sent him
back because he was not found unsuitable for the job.
In spite of this, Mr. Ansah over the years has seen rapid promotion and progress in
the company as part of the criminal plans of the top men in the company.
This paper is unable to tell exactly which year he began to hack into the document
processing machine for CEPS but it definitely has been going on for many years with
the active involvement of the Deputy Managing Director of the company, Emmanuel
Darko and the Data Security Manager, Jimmy Allotey.
With this criminal activity going on over the years, much needed revenue running
into billions of dollars which could have gone into providing schools, road,
clinics, houses, portable drinking water and health care for Ghanaians has been
lost.
Further intelligence available to this paper reveals that after the robbery was
detected, management of GCNet quickly got Elliot Ansah to resign and leave the
country. He is currently said to be cooling off in London where he owns a couple of
plush houses and other landed properties purchased with his share of the booty from
the robbery.
With Elliot Ansah out of the country, the senior management personnel are now
working around the clock to create the impression that it was a crime perpetrated by
him alone.
Investigators are believed to have taken statements from low-ranking members of the
stealing syndicate, ironically leaving out the top guns, the real criminals.
Insiders are wondering how a main server used for processing data on national
revenue could be violated with such recklessness and impunity for so long.
With the big guns being the chief architects in this day light robbery, many believe
that the matter would soon become a 'foolish case'; that the security agencies will
gloss over it and move on without punishing the criminals. The 'Daily Post',
however, has decided to follow the drama as it unfolds with an eagle's eye to it's
the logical conclusion.
More Anon