Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS) Alhaji Alhassan Mohammed Imoro has been remanded  by an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly stealing GhÈ»86.9 million from state funds.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge of one count of stealing contrary to section 124 (1) of the Criminal Offences Act, Act 29 of 1960, but was remanded to reappear on October 27, 2014.

The Cocoa Affairs Circuit Court refused an application for bail by Alhaji Imoro’s lawyer, upholding the prosecution’s prayer for a remand warrant to enable investigations into fraud in operations of the NSS.

The court was presided over by Mr Francis Obiri.

Investigations conducted by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) indicates that a total of 22,612 ghost names were generated at the headquarters of the NSS resulting in the loss of GhȻ7.9million in July alone.

According to the prosecution, from the month of September 2013 to July 2014 Alhaji Imoro stole a total sum of GhȻ86.9 million from the state coffers.

Prosecution said this was after a report received by the BNI indicated malfeasance in the postings and payment of allowances to service persons.

Prosecutor, DSP Abraham Annor said investigations so far revealed that for every month starting from September 2013, to July this year, an amount of GHÈ» 7.9 million cedis was paid to 22,612 nonexistent or ‘ghost ‘ service persons.

Prosecution noted that the ghost names were generated at the NSS headquarters under the supervision of the former NSS boss.

The state said Alhaji Imoro instructed that the names be added to the Payment Vouchers. The vouchers were then distributed to the Regional National Service Scheme Directors and on receipt, they also distributed to the District Directors under their jurisdiction.

Prosecution indicated that Imoro signed cheques for payments and these were deposited in the various banks of the districts where service persons withdrew their allowances.

He also issued instructions to the District Directors that after the allowances of the genuine service persons have been paid, the money for the ghost names should be withdrawn and sent to him through the Regional Directors.

Prosecution said in all an amount of GHÈ» 86.9million cedis was received by Imoro from the 10 Regional Directors.