145 Views Posted on 09-Jul-2011 under Health

EMBEZZLEMENT ROCKS GHANA AIDS NETWORK
Members pledge to pay back debt as Former Director is at Large.
Health Digest pain-staking investigation has revealed that the Ghana AIDS Network, (GHANET) an umbrella organization for NGOs in HIV/AIDS advocacy has been entangled with an embezzlement of about GHC60,000.
The former chairman of the organization, Mr. Samuel A. Amaning whose name is associated with this embezzlement is said to be hospitalized in Accra but the Ghana police service is processing him for court.
Though Mr. Samuel could not speak to the Health Digest on the issue, the new National Executives are equally getting ready to support the police with all the necessary documents to prosecute the former Chairman.
Our investigation further discovered that an additional GHC17, 600 meant for a project in the Volta region is missing from the organization's account, leaving the new management inheriting a debt of about GHC 60,000 of which half of this money has to be paid back.
In the latter part of his Chairmanship, Samuel Amaning resorted to amassing wealth to the disadvantage of the organization and that some of the NGOs that were able to access funds through the influence of GHANET had to pay back some percentages to him which retarded most of the research work on the discovery of medication for the treatment of HIV/AIDS locally.
GHANET, as it stands, has lost its credibility in the eyes of the international communities and this is as result of the associated swindling of its members and their international and local partners.
The organization's local members who spoke to Health Digest seemed to have lost confidence in it and that most of the local NGOs and the researchers are not prepared to be linked with GHANET any longer.
All blames are now apportioned on the former Chairman Samuel Amaning (Uncle Sam) for dishonestly diverting funds that were meant for advocacy and other projects. The current National president of GHANET, Mr. Victor Attah Ntumi in an interview with the Health Digest News said that the GHC17,600 that is missing from the bank account of the Organization was meant for a project to be carried out in the Volta region but the chairman did not send it.
However, to redeem the lost image, the current individual members have pledged to pay back the money but added that the GHANET is readying itself to retrieve every coin that the former chairman undeservedly took away from the organization's account.
He said the Organization has already reported the case to the police and very soon Mr. Samuel Amaning would be hooked from wherever he is to face the legal action for swindling local NGOs using his position then as National Chairman.
Most of the research officers who spoke to the Heath Digest in an interview indicated that Mr. Amaning in his desperate attempt to amass wealth to the detriment of HIV/AIDS patients including the research officers resorted to collection of percentages from every fund they would obtain from their sponsors and the Ghana AIDS Commission.
According to the president, GHANET will have a new look and that all the bad names associated with the Organization would be a thing of the past.
He however assured all the former member to register with the GHANET to champion the cause of the HIV/AIDS patients in the country since the new management have come to rectified all the set backs and assured that Mr. Amaning would not go unpunished despite the fact that the individual members are paying back the debt that is strangulating the organization.
The Ghana AIDS Network is currently operating as a bankrupt organization working around to realize funds needed to set the organization on the right track.


Story by;Evans Okai