The accountant of the Keta Municipal Hospital, Hayford Asilenudzi, is facing 58 counts at the Aflao Circuit Court for allegedly falsifying figures to steal GH¢258,000 from the hospital’s bank account. He was alleged to have falsified figures on 57 cheques of the bank account of the hospital at the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) and succeeded in withdrawing the said amount on different dates from the account. His assistant, Francis Dagbale, who is the second accused, is also in the dock for abetment of crime. The deal was exposed when the Medical Superintendent in charge of the hospital, Dr Felix Tsidi, ordered an investigation into the accounts of the hospital, following the detection of withdrawal of GH¢264,000 from the hospital’s bank account at the Keta branch of the GCB in May, 2011. According to the prosecutor, Mr Simon Adatsi, investigations by the hospital’s internal auditors from Ho revealed that GH¢258,000 had been stolen from the hospital’s bank account from January to December 2010. He said it was also revealed that GH¢10,942, being revenues collected and given to the second accused person to deposit in the hospital’s account at the GCB, was not deposited and when questioned, he could not account for it. Mr Adatsi said the investigations revealed that on May 4, 2011, the accountant allegedly altered a cheque for GH¢164 issued by the medical superintendent and prefixed it with 10 to become GH¢10,164.00, but the alteration was detected at the bank which brought it to the attention of the medical superintendent. He said that prompted the medical superintendent to request for a bank statement of the hospital’s account, but the accountant went in for a bank statement and altered the figures by erasing some of the figures which he had altered previously. The state attorney said the medical superintendent was not satisfied with the altered statement and so he sent the hospital administrator for another one and when the two statements were examined, it was detected that the accountant had altered the first statement. He said further investigations by the auditors also disclosed that both accused persons prepared payment vouchers for transactions, prepared cheques for the medical superintendent to endorse and later altered the cheques by increasing the face values in both figures and words. He said the second accused usually went to the bank to cash the monies after which the extra amounts were shared by both accused persons. According to Mr Adatsi, the accountant, Mr Asilenudzi, pleaded not guilty to the charge pertaining to the stolen GH¢258,000 from January to December 2010, but pleaded guilty and was convicted on his own plea pending sentence on the charge of the falsification of the cheque for GH¢164 issued on May 4, 2011. He said the assistant accountant, Dagbale, pleaded not guilty in both cases at the court presided over by Mr Francis Obiri. The court adjourned to September 1 and 2 for further hearing.