The Lands Commission has interdicted 14 staff members for their involvement in stamp duty fraud two years ago.
According to the Acting Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Benjamin Arthur, the stamp duty fraud was detected in May 2022 when the Audit Unit of the Lands Commission realized that the tax figures paid by some property owners for registering their properties failed to reflect the expected tax amount.
The fraud is alleged to involve a 100 million Ghana Cedis tax loss.
During the Executive Secretary’s Annual Briefing and the launching of the Staff Awards Scheme in Accra on Friday, February 2, 2024, it was revealed that the affected staff are being taken through court processes by the National Investigations Bureau.
However, the Lands Commission said that after further investigations, it realized that the amount had been exaggerated.
The Lands Commission has also taken internal disciplinary action against the suspects and is undergoing final disciplinary processes to determine their fate.
Meanwhile, some staff are also facing disciplinary action for fraudulent deletion and insertion of records to produce false search reports.
“It is important to state that while management will continue to provide the required job security for staff, such acts of indiscipline and fraud will not be condoned,” Mr Arthur said.
“Therefore, management will provide the state investigation bodies with the required assistance to weed out the bad nuts among us”.
A five-year Business Strategic Plan of the Lands Commission from 2023 to 2027 was also unveiled at the programme.
The strategic plan has five major goals, including enhancing the Land Commission’s financial sustainability, digital reforms, and corporate image, as well as the competence and discipline of staff to improve service delivery.
He explained that The campaign would focus on creating public awareness of the Land Commission’s mandate, service delivery, specific processes in delivering those services, the fees chargeable for the services, and digital reform platforms, among many others.
He said that that would enhance the Lands Commission’s corporate image, public trust, and confidence in its operations.
“In Ghana, workers of the Lands Commission are perceived as taking the “biggest bribes,” and other media reports on the performance of the Commission often focused on our shortcomings, while little is reported on the efforts and good works of the Commission,” Mr Arthur noted.
“The very hard works of most staff are drowned by the wrongs of the few. Most people are not well-informed about our operations and the role of the Commission in the land space”.
The outreach campaign is, therefore, intended to correct these misconceptions and create a positive corporate image going forward.
The Acting Executive Secretary explained that their corporate image redemption campaign could only be successful if it was linked to improvements in public service delivery.
Mr. Arthur further called for collaborative teamwork between staff and management to achieve desired outcomes.