Accra, Jan 13 GNA - The Committee that investigated allegations of visa racketeering against Ms Lily Mensah, an Information Officer at the Information Services Department (ISD), on Tuesday said she has admitted collecting money from persons with the promise of securing United Kingdom (UK) visas for them.

She also provided the names of the persons to whom she had made refunds totalling, 33.5 million cedis; 1,650 dollars and 100 euros. The Committee said there was the possibility that outstanding monies running into millions of cedis could still be unaccounted for.

Mr Woeli Kwaku Kemevor, Chairman of the Committee, said these when he presented the report to Dr Alex Glover-Quartey, Head of Civil Service in Accra

Mr Kemevor said that Ms Mensah had hatched the deal with one Francis Opoku, who had absconded to South Africa.

The Committee said Ms. Mensah had mis-conducted herself in a similar manner when she worked previously at the Ministry of Justice. It said she was also involved in many cases of fraudulently collecting sums of money from a number of health personnel, ostensibly for recruitment into health institutions in Ireland.

The committee urged the Civil Service to exercise the appropriate sanction to serve as a deterrent to other persons engaged in similar deals.

Dr Glover-Quartey said the Service would deal ruthlessly with staffs that engaged in corrupt practices.

Such practices, he noted, had marred the image of the Service greatly and urged the public not to hesitate in reporting such individuals for the appropriate action to be taken.

Dr Glover-Quartey said it would be of no benefit if people with knowledge about fraudulent practices only pre-empted them without reporting to the appropriate authorities.

"It is important to identify the bad nuts in the Service and flush them out rather than keeping them," he said.

He, however, said that irrespective of the numerous allegations of misconduct, there were still individuals with impeccable integrity within the Service who could be relied upon.