Massive ‘chop chop’ at district assemblies

AUDITED ACCOUNTS of the District Assemblies for 2011 fiscal year has revealed massive misappropriation of public funds, payment of salaries to individuals who did not deserve them, and other payments which could not be accounted for by the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.

Other irregularities included contract and procurement abnormalities, tax irregularity, uncollected staff rent, uncovered loans and advances as well as unretired imprests, among others whose total financial value exceeds GH¢12.1 million or ¢120billion.

For instance, 71 Assemblies processed and made payments amounting to GH¢2,910,715.96 or over ¢29 billion to individuals and organisations without accounting for them with relevant supporting receipts, invoices, statements of claims or duly authorized payment vouchers.

“The validity of the transactions could not, under the circumstance, be determined,” Auditor-General Richard Q. Quartey indicated, directing that all such “unsubstantiated payments should be recovered from the officers who authorized the payments, if they are not able to provide to support the payments.”

This amount was above a similar unsubstantiated payment of GH¢2,255,800.93 or over GH¢22.55 billion in 2010, which were contrary to provisions of Part IX Section 7 of memoranda for the Assemblies.

It was also revealed that a total amount of GH¢346,054.31 or over ¢3.46 billion was paid to staff who were no more working in 20 Assemblies due to delayed deletion of their names from the payroll.

These alleged illegal payments and many others were contained in the report of the Auditor General on the Accounts of the District Assemblies for the year ended December 31, 2011.

The report is currently before P arliament for consideration and it is expected that all the affected Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives would be dragged to the Public Accounts Committee of the Legislature answer queries.

It pointed out that poor supervision and ineffective internal controls resulted in direct disbursement of GH¢158,715.06 or over ¢1.58 billion from total revenue collected in 10 Assemblies.

This practice, apart from contravening Part VIII Section 31 of the financial memoranda, weakens expenditure controls, increases the risk of misappropriation, and encourages unauthorised borrowing of funds for private purposes and other cash irregularities.

Annual accounts of 160 District Assemblies for the year under review were audited in accordance with Articles 187 (2) and 253 of the Constitution as well as Section 121 of the Local Government Act, (Act, 462).

The financial statements of the remaining 10 Assemblies were not submitted for validation even though their accounting records were subjected to interim audits and issues arising from these audits, which were noted in the management letters, included the Auditor General’s report.

The audit report also found instances where some Assemblies deducted GH¢6,023.01 or a little over ¢60million as workers’ social security contributions from the salaries of employees but the amounts were not remitted to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

It captured the management and utilisation of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) in all the 10 regions of the country where some district assemblies have been hugely fingered for misappropriation of public funds and unlawful payments.