LACK OF OFFICES HAMPERS COMPLIANCE WITH PROCUREMENT ACT (PAGE 34)

Compliance with the provisions of the Procurement Act is being hampered in a number of district assemblies in the Brong Ahafo Region because of lack of procurement officers.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, who made this known, therefore, appealed to the appropriate authorities to post procurement officers to affected district assemblies for them to comply with the law.
He was speaking at the regional financial management workshop organised by the Audit Service in Sunyani last Tuesday.
The workshop was attended by accountants of the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and district assemblies.
Other participants were district finance officers, district co-ordinating directors and staff of the Audit Service.
It was organised to address the findings of an audit conducted nationwide last year by Messrs Ernest and Young Chartered Accountants to bring a third party review to the handling of the various transactions underlying receipts and disbursements of the Consolidate Fund.
The audit also focused on transactions relating to the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing and selected departments under it, as well as 20 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), drawn from each region in the country.
The workshop centred on Budget Preparation and Reporting Cycle, Consolidated Fund inflows, Budget and Public Expenditure Management Systems, Financial Reporting Formats, Receipts and Payments Concerns, Consolidated Fund Reporting issues, Internal Audit issues and Internal Controls.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo stressed the need for the assemblies to register all their fixed assets so that at any given time they could account for them without any difficulty, pointing out that the accurate preparation of trial balances of the assemblies would also provide the basis for their income and expenditure accounts.
According to the Regional Minister, the startling revelations at the ongoing Ghana@50 probe in Accra, should be an eye-opener to all those in positions of trust, since one day, they could be called to account for their stewardship.
He said following what was currently going on at the probe, it was not far-fetched to conclude that, “some of the politicians did not listen to the bureaucrats during the Ghana@50 celebration, regarding procurement and other activities”, adding that politicians should listen to the bureaucrats to learn a lot from them as to what to do.
In his welcoming address, the Brong Ahafo Regional Auditor, Mr Charles Segre, noted that the findings of the audit required additional attention alongside the immediate requirement to submit the findings for the attention of Parliament.
According to him, the objectives of the audit were to provide an independent opinion on the financial statements and to review and report on the effectiveness of the system of internal controls of the audited organisations.
He pointed out that recommendations had been made, where appropriate, on how systems could be improved but the key task was to examine whether existing systems were being followed and where necessary, “we have made practical recommendations on how enforcement could be tightened”.
Mr Segre noted that financial management in government agencies was largely decentralised and that in order to keep the work within reasonable limits and to ensure a timely completion, “we were required within each of the organisations, to undertake a detailed audit of a proportion of the spending units or budget management centres”.