The Kumasi office of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) has been accused of conniving with some management staff of the Ashanti Regional Health Directorate to back date the employment period of casual workers and share the money accruing from the scam.

Investigations have revealed that they allegedly do this by sending the names of the casual workers to the Controller and Accountant General's Department to be inserted on the government's pay roll as persons who had worked for many years without pay.

After the appointment of the casual workers have been regularised and their salary arrears paid, the officials collect the money and share it among themselves.

An informant who disclosed this to the Ghanaian Times said he notified the BNI about he fraud when the Human Resource Director of the Regional Health Directorate, Gershon Agbo, allegedly took GH¢6,000 in the name of a female casual worker whose empl9yment had been 'regularised' and shared the money with other officials.

According to the informant, BNI officials asked him to bring along the woman for her statement to be taken.

He said when he took her to the BNI the officials said that the office had run short of statement forms and therefore could not take her statement.

But the BNI denied the informant's claim saying that the station had not run out of statement forms.

When contacted by the Ghanaian Times on the allegation, an official of the bureau said that the informant was indeed asked to bring along the woman but "he never did and we did not follow up the case."

An official of the Regional Health Directorate, Mr Kofi Opoku, declined any comment on the matter since it was with the Serious Fraud office. v