........M-Plaza, Crystal Palm Hotels Cited

It has emerged from The Independent’s continuing study of the forensic review of the internal control systems of Ghana Airways that some Accra-based hotels took advantage of the laxity at the airline to dupe it of several millions of cedis.

According to the forensic review, two hotels out of the lot that have become ‘culprit’, M-Plaza Hotel(pictured) and Crystal Palm Hotel are to refund ?85,374,231 and ?66,084,125 respectively.

In the case of M-Plaza, it is to make an additional refund of US$5,758 to the airline. The forensic auditors state in their report of the review of the airline’s internal control system that “We observed that the airline had a policy to accommodate passengers whenever flights were cancelled, delayed for long hours or when they had to connect flights in Accra to continue their journeys to their destinations. The airline has agreement with some hotels, which they use to accommodate these passengers.”

The forensic auditors continue thus “Our review of the system in place revealed that it had been so relaxed that some of the hotels had taken advantage of the airline. The Officers-in-charge of booking passengers into the hotels had also taken advantage of the relaxed system. The hotels were presenting very ridiculous bills to the company but these had been approved for payment by the Reservations Officer and the bills had been paid.” With specific reference to Crystal Palm Hotel, the forensic auditors state that in some instances where the airline had stopped for short hours (sometimes between three to four hours) and in one instance, for only one hour, Crystal Palm Hotel had sent bills charging for accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“In the situation where there was only one hour time lapse between the arrival of the flight and the departure, a ?408,500 for one passenger covering accommodation, lunch and dinner was presented to the airline. This bill has been settled.” For the period September 1, 2001 to April 30, 2002, the forensic auditors said “We also related the date of flight to the date passengers were sent to the hotel. Our verification established that there were No Flights on some of the days.” Interestingly, Crystal Palm Hotel submitted a bill of ?35,500,750 representing accommodation, lunch and dinner to Ghanair for the sample period stated. According to the forensic audit report, “What was disturbing was that all these bills had been authorised by the Officer-In-Charge of reserving accommodation at hotels for passengers and had been paid. We feel strongly that Ghana Airways should take a second look at the bills submitted, and those submitted against “no-flight” days, should be refunded by the Hotel.”

The forensic auditors recommend that Crystal Palm Hotel should be informed of the wrong billing and they should be made to refund ?66,084,125 to Ghanair whilst the airline’s management should also hold all Supervisors who were in charge of hotel reservations at the time these illegitimate payments were made responsible.

In the case of M-Plaza Hotel, the forensic auditors state that they undertook the same exercise executed on Crystal Palm and found out that for a sample period for September 1, 2001 to April 30, 2002 and January 1 to December 31, 2000, wrong billing emanating from charges on no flight days resulted in payments of ?85,374,231 and US$5,758.

The forensic auditors also drew attention to the fact that from their findings, “a through 100 per cent check for the years 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 will definitely reveal an astonishing amount of wrongful billing by the chain of hotels used by the airline.

A rather shocking link to the abuse of hotel reservations at Ghanair as contained in the forensic review report is that of “expatriate accommodation” which also represents a reckless disregard for prudence.

The reports state that Ghana Airways rented a six buildings in Accra’s Tesano suburb known as Halabel Villas for a period of two years at a rent of US$800 a month. Ghanair had paid rent of US$800 a month. Ghanair had paid rent of US$91,200 as at May, 2002 and also contracted Anibok Guest House to manage the facilities at a fee of US$2,700 per month. “Even though Ghana Airways had rented Halabel Villas for its crew members, it was still putting its expatriate crew and Million Air Crew in the M-Plaza Hotel while Halabel Villas rooms were not being utilised” the forensic audit stated. The report also adds that Ghana Airways was being billed by M-Plaza for accommodation, even when the expatriate crew was not in the country.

These acts, according to the forensic audit cost Ghana Airways a whooping US$310,814 over a period in spite of the fact that its Support Services Manager had in December, 2001 written the Head of Administration on the need for part of Halabel Villas to be used as transit quarters for Managers or for use as accommodation for the expatriate staff.