The Enugu State High Court, in Enugu, has convicted former revenue officer with the National Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu, Dorothy Chigozie Amalili, for defrauding the hospital of N4.6 million.
According to a statement by the ICPC spokesperson, Azuka Oguwa, on Wednesday, Mrs Amalili was convicted on all six counts preferred against her.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had accused Mrs Amalili of diverting N4.644 million belonging to the hospital into personal use.
The commission also accused her of knowingly furnishing false statements in respect of money received in order to conceal her actions while performing official duties as a revenue officer.
ICPC’s counsel, Enosa Omoghibo, told the court that her offences which were committed between February 2017 and December 2018, were contrary to Section 16 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under the same section of the Act.
“The convict, while performing her duties would write the actual amounts collected from patients on the original copy of the receipts, while writing lesser amounts on the duplicate and triplicate copies of the same receipts kept in the Accounts Department for audit purposes, which enabled her to remit lesser sum of money than the actual amount collected to the hospital, thereby fraudulently retaining the difference. She, through this deceitful means, was able to defraud the hospital of N4,644.030.00, over a period of time.
The trial judge, K. Okpe, at the conclusion of the trial, found her guilty on all six counts. He, therefore, sentenced her to six months imprisonment for each of the counts which will run concurrently.
The convict was also given an option of a fine in lieu of custodial sentence by the trial judge for being a Person Living with Disability (PLWD). Her right leg had been amputated due to a diabetic foot ulcer.
Sentencing the convict, the judge also ordered her to refund the entire money she embezzled to the National Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu.
She will refund the balance of N4,544,030.00 to the hospital after an initial repayment of N100,000.
The money is to be taken from her Pension Funds domiciled with IBTC Pensions into the ICPC Recovery Account under the TSA as recovery for and on behalf of the hospital.