The Acting Auditor General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu has disclosed that some cash irregularities which occurred in some 170 Assemblies amounted to the tune of GH¢33,213,320.67.
According to the 2019 Audit-General report, sighted by The Vaultz News, these included Commitment of expenditure without “the use of the GIFMIS, Deduction at Source for Fumigation and SIP Services not rendered”.
Also, funds not accounted for, payments not properly supported with relevant documentation to authenticate the transactions, unretired funds among others necessitated these irregularities.
He further indicated that allocations of Common Fund to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in compliance with Section 129(b) of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936), via the Administrator of District Assemblies Common Fund “distributed a total amount of GH¢511,002,936.02 to the 260 Assemblies”.
“Of this amount, GH¢121,428,418.62 was deducted at source in favor of the Assemblies’ Service Providers. This represented a 2.8 per cent decreased in funds inflow to the Assemblies as compared to 2018 where 79.04 per cent of the funds allocated was transferred by the Administrator to the MMDAs”.
Lurking in the shadow of anomalies with projects within various Assemblies was that of the assigning of contracts.
The audit team of the Auditor General encountered some “contract Irregularities”. Detection were with “completed projects not in use, projects which were either abandoned or their execution significantly delayed, and direct payment by ADACF for Fumigation and SIP Services not rendered”.
“Others were in respect of payment of contract works/services without contract agreement, payments for construction works with no evidence of execution etc.”
With this, abandoned and delayed projects totaled GH51, 812,103.04 in 102 Assemblies. Completed projects not put to use GH16, 265,504.25 in 44 Assemblies.
As part of the summary of the report, he was of the opinion that the irregularities inherent in the 2019 report “are similar to the previous years in many ways”.
“The findings violate rules, regulations, directives and policies, which had been put in place to ensure effective and efficient management of resources. The irregularities for 2019 showed a marginal increase of GH¢4,261,293.15 representing 3.53% against the 2018 figure of GH¢120,567,896.78”.
The outstanding and unresolved issues, he stated, were attributed to deficiencies and weaknesses in internal controls in the operations of the Assemblies.
Irregularities such as non-compliance with existing legislative framework and instruments, managerial lapses and weak monitoring procedures at the ministerial, legislative and administrative levels of the Assemblies “were still prevalent as evidenced in the management letters”.
Mr. Aseidu added that, the deficiencies noted in the operations of the Assemblies “created avenues for some officials to mismanage funds” and resources of “the Assemblies to a financial value of approximately GH¢124.82 million”.
“As a result, the lapses and deficiencies were identified in transactions under account areas such as cash management, contract, procurement and store, and tax irregularities, which have been summarized and consolidated in this report.
Additionally, he reechoed that the irregularities as characteristic of the findings of the report are repetitive “due to disregard and violations of relevant laws”.
“Besides recommendations to strengthen controls, I have recommended refund of amounts either not accounted for or were losses which resulted from management inaction to protect the resources of the Assemblies. We are in the process of disallowing and surcharging officials who are culpable”.
