W/R: Hospital accountants busted for stealing over GHC500k

A female accountant with the UQ Hospital, a private facility undertaking Specialist Medical Services in the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolis of the Western Region of Ghana, has been arraigned for allegedly stealing a total of five hundred and fifty-one thousand seven hundred and thirty-two Ghana Cedis, sixty-four pesewas (GHC 551,732.64) from the accounts of the hospital.

The accused; Linda Nana Donkor and her assistant Magdalene Kublenu Walagyo, are facing charges of thievery among others at the Sekondi High court Two.

The accountant and her assistant were reportedly solely in charge of lodging monies collected from various clients of the hospital and subsequently forwarding them into the hospital’s main account.

However, an internal audit undertaken in September 2018, revealed that the main financial database of the hospital was tempered with and a whooping GHC 551,732.64 was missing or unaccounted for.

The audit further revealed that cash receipts for monies between January and September 2018, were never deposited into the hospital’s account.

The suspects who have been working with the hospital for the past 6 and 4years respectively were confronted by management when the anomaly was detected by the auditor on 11th October 2019. They were subsequently queried but refused to produce any response. A second query was issued which was also ignored.

The auditor released the report to the directors of the hospital in November 2018 where the two admitted wrongdoing but denied allegations of thievery.

The accountant Linda Nana Donkor refused to appear in court when the case was first called on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, at the Sekondi High court Two. The case has been adjourned to January 15, 2020.