A committee that investigated Professor Harry Akussah, Hall Master of the Commonwealth Hall of the University of Ghana, on allegations of ‘financial misappropriation and official connivance’ has exonerated him and asked his accuser to publicly apologise to him. Furthermore, the former Junior Common Room (JCR) President of the hall, Benjamin Akyena Brantuo, who levelled the allegations, and two other former executives of the hall, have also been directed by the university to refund and fully account for over ¢91 million being a shortfall in the accounts of the JCR. The amount includes ¢51million Hall Week celebration funds, ¢2,295,000 for a clean-up exercise in the hall, ¢1,440,000 for transportation and refreshment at a sports event in Koforidua and ¢6,500,000 inflated hiring charges for a bus to a funeral in Cape Coast. A statement issued by the university’s Registrar, Ted Konu, on Wednesday said the report of the committee, set up in November last year to audit the accounts of the hall following the allegations, have been fully accepted and the allegation that the Hall Master had diverted ¢1.5 billion from the JCR funds have been found to be "false, baseless and mischievous". The Vice-Chancellor has Therefore directed that Mr. Brantuo should retract the allegation that he made, giving it as much publicity as when he made it. Mr Brantuo is also to write a letter of apology to the Hall Master. Brantuo, Bright Nkrumah, former Vice President and Enoch Ampomah Danso, former Treasurer, all final year students, will have their final results and certificates withheld should they fail to comply. The committee’s work also led to the discovery of a deal between the former Vice President and the former Treasurer on one hand and a shop owner on the other hand, involving the purchase of a large screen 46-inch Plasma Projector television. The TV was reportedly purchased at ¢39 million but it was discovered that it actually cost ¢26 million. The committee explained that during the investigations two people visited the shop where the set was bought and introduced themselves to the shop owner as students from another university who wanted the same type of television set for their hall. According to the report, they requested a pro-forma invoice and the shop owner, determined to convince them to buy it, told them that he had sold the same brand to the Commonwealth Hall and "confided in them that the actual price was ¢26 million but they entered into a deal with him to inflate the price to ¢39 million so that they could enjoy the surplus of ¢13 million. This was agreed upon and the deal went through." The report noted that most JCR executives were not committed to their responsibilities citing the treasurers, who it said over the years, "kept no proper records of their financial transactions and more seriously disbursed money without collecting official receipts from payees or wrote one themselves for them to sign." Source: The Ghanaian Times