NINE EMPLOYEES OF KINAPHARMA IN COURT

NINE employees of Kinapharma Company Ltd, an Accra-based pharmaceutical company, were yesterday arraigned at the Accra Circuit Court for allegedly stealing a stock of chemical products valued at GH¢228,271.40 and belonging to the company.
Six of the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges and they were admitted to various bail terms, ranging between GH¢2,000 and GH¢170,000.
A bench warrant was issued for the arrest of three other accomplices who were not in court, while the case was adjourned to February 13, 2008.
The accused persons were admitted to bail in the following terms: Emmanuel Sarfo, accounts officer — GH¢2,000; Collins Asiedu, Regional Manager — GH¢700; Nelson Akwamuwor, supervisor — GH¢43,000; Solomon Bortey, driver — GH¢40,000; Alexander Oduro, sales representative — GH¢170,000, and Samuel Logbah, also a driver — GH¢3,000.
Those at large are Abraham Gyamfi, warehouse supervisor; Bernard Arthur and Henry Boamah, both drivers.
Prosecuting, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) George Abavelim told the court that all the accused persons were employees of Kinapharma, which is involved in the production and sale of pharmaceutical products.
He said in October last year, the company’s accounting system was audited and the report indicated that a stock of products valued at GH¢228,271.04 had been requested for, approved and collected from the warehouse for sale but it was unaccounted for by the accused persons.
According to the prosecutor, it was detected that a lot of transactions had been made in the form of stock transfers into a dormant account known as Central Medical Stores (CMS).
He said from the report, between April and September last year, Sarfo stole GH¢192,316.34 by means of stock transfer and zero invoicing of sales, while Asiedu, within the same period, also stole GH¢67,486.75 through the approval of stock requisitions which were never accounted for.
ASP Abavelim said Akwamuwor also stole GH¢41,495.68 through the non approval of stock requisitions submitted by sales teams and which were never accounted for, while Bortey, as the driver in charge of sales in Accra, collected products worth GH¢39,474.95 but failed to account for them.
Oduro, he said, also collected stock valued at GH¢161,654.47 but failed to account for it, while Logbah collected stock of chemical products worth GH¢2,509.43 but failed to account for it.
He said a report was made to the police, after which the accused persons were arrested, while the rest went into hiding.