Forgery- Nine arrested in Accra & Kumasi

Page One: November 17, 2007.
Story: Albert K. Salia
NINE people have been arrested in Accra and Kumasi by a Special Investigation Task Force for their alleged roles in the forgery of vital national documents which deprived the state of huge sums of money in domestic non-tax revenue.
They have been accused of conniving and condoning to forge and falsify official documents and pocketing the revenue that was due the state from the payment of fines, fees and charges.
They were arrested on the premises of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Births and Deaths Registry and are currently on bail.
With the exception of one of the suspects, the rest were described as middlemen.
They are Tahiru Chimburi, alias Djamba; Kojo Aboagye, James Amoako, all of whom were arrested at the DVLA offices in Accra, with Kenneth Afriyie Mensah and Ahmed Shamsudeen being arrested in Kumasi.
An official of the Births and Deaths Registry, Samuel Jojo Dolphyne, together with Ernest Amofa, 71, and his son, Nana Gyasi Amofa, and Daniel Kwasi Dwira were all arrested at the Births and Deaths Registry.
The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, told the Daily Graphic that the government had noticed a fall in the non-tax revenue from sources other than taxation from which traditionally most of the domestic revenue was derived.
He said although non-tax revenue had increased steadily since 2002, its mobilisation had encountered various revenue leakage problems.
The leakage, he said, included syndicates running parallel operations to duplicate and falsify documents and services provided by various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), thereby siphoning revenue which should accrue to the state.
On the methods employed, he said some corrupt MDA officials intentionally slowed down service delivery to create the environment to extort money from clients.
Others, he said, were involved in outright stealing and non lodgement of revenue collected on behalf of the government, poor accounting and reporting of revenue receipts.
Mr Baah-Wiredu said to curtail these bottlenecks, he had requested the services of the security agencies to help apprehend the perpetrators of those crimes against the state and ensure that they were prosecuted.
He said as a result, the Special Investigation Task Force was set up to embark on the exercise to stamp out the illegal operators to help minimise revenue loss to the state.
He said the exercise, which had started at the DVLA and the Births and Deaths Registry, would cover the Registrar-General’s Department and all such agencies throughout the country.
Mr Baah-Wiredu noted that members of the task force, for instance, gave out false information to some of the people arrested to process road worthy certificates, international drivers’ licences and birth certificates.
He said although the suspects refused to mention their accomplices working in those institutions, information gathered was that apart from collecting tips, the officials often pocketed the money that was due the state because of poor accounting practices and the complicity of some accounts staff.