Sedinam Tamakloe, the former CEO of MASLOC, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour, while Daniel Axim, the former Chief Operating Officer of MASLOC, has been given a five-year sentence with hard labour.
Both were found guilty on 78 counts including causing financial loss to the state, stealing, conspiracy to steal, money laundering, and causing loss to public property in violation of public procurement law.
The trial, which began in 2019, saw the state call six witnesses. Sedina Tamakloe, the first accused, was tried in absentia after she absconded following court permission to seek a medical checkup abroad. The second accused, however, testified in person without calling any witnesses.
The charges for which the accused were found guilty relate to the misappropriation of funds intended for MASLOC activities between 2013 and 2016.
In one instance, the convicts were found to have withdrawn GHc 500,000 as a loan for Obaatampa Savings and Loans company but demanded a refund when the institution refused to yield a 24% return.
State evidence suggested that although there was evidence of the said refund to the convicts, it was not reflected in the accounts and books of the complainant institution, MASLOC.
The pair were also found guilty of misappropriating over 1.7 million Ghana cedis intended for a sensitization exercise. According to the case facts, MASLOC was expected to provide 20 Ghana cedis each for 85,300 beneficiaries, totalling 1.7 million cedis. However, only 1,300 cedis was used for the intended purpose, with the remainder being misappropriated by the convicts.
Similarly, only 579,800 out of 1.4 million cedis was disbursed to the victims of a fire at Kantamanso, with the two accused persons appropriating the remainder.
The case also involved the purchase of vehicles for MASLOC, where the disbursed funds for the purchase exceeded the market price of the vehicles at the time. A similar situation occurred with the purchase of some Samsung phones.
The evidence suggested that the amounts were higher than the prevailing market price at the time, even though they were bought in bulk.
