Asupervisory committee affiliated with the Institute of Chartered Accountants-Ghana (ICAG) has found Abdulai Suglo, a senior accountant who drew double salary for nineteen months from two public universities at the same time, guilty of breaching three sections of the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants.
A report from the Public Accountancy Supervisory Committee (PASC) says he breached Section R111.1, Section R111.2 and Section R115.1 of the code.
“You, by receiving double salary from two public tertiary institutions, have conducted yourself in a manner that is unethical and in breach of section R111.1 and section R115.1 of the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants and regulation 87 (0) of Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana Regulations, 2023 (L.I. 2476).
“You, by failing to disclose to SDD-UBIDS that you cannot receive a salary from the university, have conducted yourself in a manner that is unethical and in breach of section R111.2 of the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants and regulation 87 (0) of Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana Regulations, 2023 (L.I. 2476),” the committee told the accountant in a statement of charges.
As detailed in that report, the committee has recommended that the accountant appear before the Disciplinary Committee (DC) of the ICAG for further action.
Background
Suglo works as a senior accountant at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi.
In 2020, he was employed as Director of Finance for Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) in the Upper West regional capital, Wa, while he was on sabbatical leave at KNUST.
As he prepared to report at SDD-UBIDS, a letter signed by a KNUST assistant registrar, Yvonne Baiden, forewarned him against drawing double salary.
Despite the written warning, he proceeded to Wa and did the opposite.
He received Gh¢115,516.62 (a current equivalent of USD9,431.23) in salaries and allowances on the quiet from both SDD-UBIDS and KNUST between June 2020 and December 2021.
The scandal was not exposed until external auditors from the Ghana Audit Service (GAS) descended on the university without notice in 2023 and uncovered it while auditing the financial records of the institution.
Petitions
In 2023, an ICAG member and ex-student of SDD-UBIDS, Zakaria Aliu Domanangmine, filed a petition with ICAG against the accountant regarding the double-salary infraction.
On Friday, 16 August 2024, Suglo appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Parliament with regard to the matter.
He admitted in front of live cameras and the PAC members that he received double salary from the two universities.
But he claimed he did so because the university (SDD-UBIDS) failed to satisfy some specific terms and conditions of employment that applied to senior staff members, including himself.
In response, PAC maintained that his action was unacceptable and unlawful, and directed him to refund to the state the salary he received in Wa.
He subsequently resigned from SDD-UBIDS and returned to KNUST.
In 2024, ICAG received another petition from a professor of finance in the SDD-UBIDS’ Department of Banking and Finance, Yakubu Awudu Sare, who doubles as the dean of the university’s School of Business, in relation to the double-salary scandal.
ICAG told Media Without Borders in May, 2025, that the petitions had been referred to PASC.
Prior to the compilation of its report, PASC met with the parties involved (the two petitioners and the accountant) on three occasions and obtained more information from KNUST, SDD-UBIDS and GAS, according to ICAG.
Consequence
The three sections the senior accountant is found to have breached are in a 373-page volume called “Handbook of the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants”.
Section R111.1 of the code states that:
A professional accountant shall comply with the principle of integrity, which requires an accountant to be straightforward and honest in all professional and business relationships.
Section R111.2 of the code says:
A professional accountant shall not knowingly be associated with reports, returns, communications or other information where the accountant believes that the information:
(a) Contains a materially false or misleading statement;
(b) Contains statements or information provided recklessly; or
(c) Omits or obscures required information where such omission or obscurity would be misleading.
The third one—Section R115.1— states that:
A professional accountant shall comply with the principle of professional behaviour, which requires an accountant to:
(a) Comply with relevant laws and regulations;
(b) Behave in a manner consistent with the profession’s responsibility to act in the public interest in all professional activities and business relationships; and
(c) Avoid any conduct that the accountant knows or should know might discredit the profession.
A professional accountant shall not knowingly engage in any business, occupation or activity that impairs or might impair the integrity, objectivity or good reputation of the profession, and as a result would be incompatible with the fundamental principles.
The consequence for breaching the above sections is spelt out in Section 40 (1) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana Act, 2020 (Act 1058):
”The Institute shall cancel a licence to engage in public practice of accountancy or non-audit practice if the holder of the licence
(a) is found guilty of professional misconduct;
(b) is convicted of an offence involving dishonesty;
(c) is declared to be of unsound mind;
(d) is an undischarged bankrupt;
(e) obtained the certificate through fraud, misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact; or
(f) commits an offence under this Act.
Some Ghanaians and civil society organisations have announced their readiness to launch “a massive demonstration” in Ghana against ICAG and lodge a petition with the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) if the Disciplinary Committee fails to revoke Suglo’s licence in accordance with the Act.
“He voluntarily admitted before the Parliamentary Accounts Committee that he received double salary at SD Dombo University in Wa. Ghanaians have watched the video on this matter from Parliament and it is on YouTube. We have seen a letter he wrote stating that he has paid the money back to SD Dombo University.
“We have also read the report from the Ghana Audit Service on the double salary he took. The evidence is very clear and weighty. We are keenly waiting for the Disciplinary Committee and we shall launch a massive demonstration if the committee fails to go by what is clearly stated in the ICAG Act 2020. The money he dishonestly took could have been used by the state to provide social amenities for deprived communities,” said Dr. Harry K. Tampang, a board member of the Centre for Africa Policy Watch (CAPWA).
A meeting of the Disciplinary Committee has been scheduled for Thursday, 25 September 2025, at 2:30 p.m. in the ICAG’s Council Chamber, Accra, to conduct a hearing on the case at hand.
Meanwhile, investigators are currently looking into the accountant’s case at the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
