The technical university is said to have entered into a joint venture agreement with private firm, SONTECT for the procurement of some facilities to help students in the school have practical training in computer repairing and assembling.

Under the agreement, a new firm was formed with the name Kumasi Polytechnic SONTECT  (KPST) in which the polytechnic was to have a 40% share, and SONTECT, 60%.

But there are claims that whereas evidence abound that the Kumasi Technical University committed a huge chunk of resources, less can be said of SONTECT.

This was revealed when the authorities of the Technical University appeared before the Public Accounts Committee sitting in Sunyani.

PAC on Monday, February 19, 2018, began public hearings of the report of the Auditor-General of financial expenses of Municipal/District Assemblies (MDAs), Tertiary and pre-tertiary institutions in the Brong Ahafo and Ashanti Regions.

Chairman of the Committee and Member of Parliament for the Ketu North Constituency, James Klutse Avedzi, after three hours of debating the contract signed between the University and SONTECT (KPST), ruled that the discussion be suspended to make way for all those involved in the process to be invited in Accra to provide further and better particulars to address the queries.

He stated that due process was not followed and there were a lot of issues that needed to be answered and “that is why we spent more than two hours on that particular issue and that is where we realized that there were accusations and counter accusations.”

“We need to bring all the parties together to go deep into the matter and bring it to its logical conclusion. We need to put all the people together to bring finality to the matter and that is why we suspended discussion on this matter that at another time, we will be inviting the university with appropriate bodies to come to Accra to respond to the issues,” he added.

Speaking to Citi News after appearing before the Committee, acting Vice Chancellor of the Kumasi Technical University, Prof. Asiamah Yeboah, admitted that he took over the administration of the university in January 2017, and the KPST issue dated back to 2011 when he was not in office, and that he was still studying the documents.

Prof. Yeboah explained that the University [then Kumasi polytechnic], entered into the contract with SONTECH to give birth to a new company called KPST, and per the arrangements, Kumasi Polytechnic was supposed to have 40% and SONTECH 60% of assembling of computers and other software services to boost the knowledge and capacity of Engineering and Computer Science students of the university.

The initiative, Prof. Yeboah said was a good move but faced implementation challenges that made nonsense of the whole initiative.

On the way forward, he said the previous council advised the board to abrogate the contract and even appointed auditors to lead the process to audit the contract records, and the claim that SONTECT which owned 60% of the birthed company committed some resources to the project.

The Acting Rector disputed that claim, and said “there’s no evidence to prove that SONTECT has paid anything as support or commitment to the project.”

The acting Vice Chancellor said all the issues concerning the institution have been reported to the University Council awaiting their advice and directions on the projects.

Sunyani Technical University appears before PAC

Still at the committee sitting, the Sunyani Technical University on the other hand discharged itself creditably to the admiration of the committee.

The committee was however not happy with delays with the completion of GETFUND projects at the institution.

But in response, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Kojo Adinkra Appiah, blamed the delays on delayed cash flow from the GETFUND making it difficult for the contractors to continue the work.

“In fact, money was not coming from the GETFUND, and that gave a lot challenges to the project and so when the external auditors came, they thought they were infractions, but we took our time and explained to them. They realize they were genuine challenges and that was why the projects were not completed on time”, he explained.

He appealed to government and the GETFUND to intervene and provide the necessary assistance to complete the projects which he said is helping to address the classroom, offices and accommodation challenges of the institution.

The Vice Chairman of Committee, Edward Dery, expressed worry over the side-stepping of procedures stipulated by the Financial Management Act management and heads of institutions and MDAs.

He accused management of the Kumasi Technical University of deliberately dodging all the queries raised by the committee and pledged members’ readiness to do the necessary due diligence to ensure the right thing was done and misappropriated funds refunded.

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By: Mashoud Kombat/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Committee’s hearings, which will take place from Monday, February 19 to Saturday, February 24, 2018, will consider financial infractions of the MMDAS, Technical Universities and Pre-University Institutions for 2015/2016 financial year for both the Brong Ahafo and Ashanti Regions.

Chairman of the Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, in his address, said giving false testimony and information to the Committee amounts to perjury and a liability to the strict application of the laws of the country and therefore cautioned the invited institutions and individuals to be careful and not fall foul of the law.

He stated that the Committee was not a fault-finding one, and is established under Article 103 of the Constitution with the powers of a High Court and therefore tasked managers of the country’s resources to ensure value for money in their expenses on behalf of Ghanaians.

He told Citi News there were some outstanding issues which the Committee would recommend to Parliament for government to take action to enhance good financial governance and management of public finances to ensure value for money.

“We are governed by the rule of law. So if you go against the law, we will recommend for the law to take its own course,” he emphasized.

The PAC Chairman stated that the collaboration between the Committee and the Auditor-General’s Department over the years has helped in the fight against corruption in the country.

“Yes, there has been improvement and there will be more improvement when officers are surcharged and made to pay back the money they have embezzled. In the past, the process used to be cumbersome but now the Auditor-General has power under article 187 to disallow these expenditures and you are made to pay those expenditures”, he explained.

He identified financial constraints and inadequate time to study and securitize the reports as the main challenges facing the committee and its work and commended Parliament and a German-based NGO, GIZ, for sponsoring the work of the Committee.

“Our challenge as a Committee is funding and time but nevertheless we are prepared to work for Mother Ghana and so we are doing the work. Our second challenge is time because the kind of work we do as a Committee involves a lot of hardwork and sometimes we don’t have adequate time to peruse the reports very well because we are going to use one week to look at all the MMDAs, Technical Universities and Pre-University Institutions in the Brong Ahafo and Ashanti Regions using two days to do that. So we are stressing to do the work”, he lamented.

The Deputy Ranking Member of the PAC and MP for Nantong, Mohammed Hardi Tuferu appealed to Ghanaians and stakeholders to help fight corruption and malfeasance in the country for sustainable growth and development.

He tasked heads of institutions to strive to abide by the oath they swore before the Committee and be guided by its consequences.

Kumasi and Sunyani Technical Universities are expected to face the committee to answer queries on some infractions detected in their accounts books, followed by Municipals and Districts Assemblies and Pre-University Institutions in the two regions.

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By: Mashoud Kombat/citifmonline.com

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Members of the PAC raised serious concerns about the continuous mismanagement of resources disbursed to state institutions particularly the Regional Coordinating Councils, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.

The PAC, which is chaired by Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzie, is sitting in Tamale reviewing the Auditor General’s 2015/2016 report of public institutions.

Authorities of all public institutions in the three regions of the north are expected to appear at the Committee’s one-week sittings.

Hon. James Klutse Avedzi decried some public office holders neglect of the Financial Management Acts, and called for attitudinal change.

According to him the Auditor General’s previous reports revealed how some state institutions’ internally generated funds and government subventions were misused.

“Public officers who are spending money or advising heads of departments to part with money meant for the people of this country must be guided by the various regulations.”

The Ketu South Legislator served notice that the Committee wouldn’t hesitate to recommend punitive sanctions on duty bearers found misappropriating public funds.

The Member of Parliament for the Bunkprugu constituency, Solomon Boar, called for the forensic audit of abandoned GETFund sponsored projects at the Tamale Technical University (TaTU).

“The GETFund projects at the TaTU have consistently been captured in the annual Auditor General’s report since 2012, but nothing seems to be done about the completion of the said projects,” he lamented.

As a Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Solomon Boar said the abandoned projects were awarded ten years ago.

“I believe that the projects which were started ten years ago, would have given the university and its entire structure a major face-lift if they had all been completed on schedule by now. The failure to complete the projects on schedule by the contractors has caused a lot of public concern.”

The interim Vice Chancellor of the TaTU, Professor Abdulai Salifu Asuro, explained that there were five different GETFund sponsored projects at various levels of completion at the university.

These projects, he said are, “The Vice Chancellor’s Residence, Girls Hostel, Library and two other edifices.”

Professor Asuro defended the contractors saying, “I think that the contractors could not be entirely responsible for the delay, and lack of funds could be a major factor.”

The Member of Parliament for Builsa South Constituency, Dr. Clement Apaak, expressed disquiet about authorities of the Nandom District Assembly’s decision to operate a bank account in faraway Wa Township.

“In this day and age it should be possible for the Nandom District Assembly and for that matter all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in Ghana to operate bank accounts in their respective jurisdictions.”

He insisted that, “MMDAs should have an option of opening bank accounts closer to them as it enables them to bring closer their activities to the people whom they are serving.”

“Mr Chairman, I think that the Assembly has to look at the option of establishing an account in a bank in Nandom whether it is rural or not. Because as a district, I believe that it is time that you bring your activities closer home. I must say I am a bit disappointed that today we have Nandom District Assembly still saving or having accounts in Wa.”

Appearing before the Committee, authorities of the Wa East District Assembly failed to explain why the Assembly recorded completely zero revenue in the 2014 fiscal year, clearly captured in the Auditor General’s report.

A member of the Committee and MP for Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem, Samuel Atta Mills, accused some civil servants of being corrupt than politicians as it is widely perceived.

“Whenever we read about corruption, the first people they look at are we the Parliamentarians. Now the public should know that when we talk about corruption we’re talking about civil servants, not the politicians.”

The PAC is expected to end its sittings in the Northern Sector by the close of Friday February 16, 2018, and move to the Brong Ahafo Region.

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, the First Deputy Speaker, Joe Osei-Owusu, was of the view that, some officials who were complicit in the improper disposal of the said vehicles were not given appropriate sanctions.

[contextly_sidebar id=”zYcoLnhVEPZ3XxaaTAlrmXhxxnpgJUKG”]The Committee has been asked to go back, and re-work the report with stiffer sanctions and recommendations.

In April 2017, the two institutions together with the auctioneers who disposed off the vehicles, some for as low as GHc 1,000, faced the Committee to explain the infractions as captured in the Auditor General’s report.

“Some breaches of the law have occurred. Recommendations must be made in respect of those. Some public officials were negligent or non-compliant of the law. That is why I am directing that the report comes back to Committee. All that is outstanding, the Committee should [address] and report back.”

“I direct that the report goes back to the Committee for other recommendations… the report may have made the observation, but the conclusions are not sufficient,” Mr. Osei-Owusu said.

Background

In April 2017, the Public Accounts Committee slammed officials of the MoFA and an auctioneer to the ministry for contravening the auction laws when 24 vehicles were sold to staff of the ministry at ridiculously low prices.

The auctioneer, Alex Adjei, side-stepped all the laws governing the proper disposal of government vehicles and disposed off the vehicles, mostly double-cabin pickups, to the staff of the ministry and pocketed GHc33,203 as his 7% commission on the sale of the vehicles.

Some of the vehicles were auctioned for GHc1,000 each.

PAC also indicted the Ghana Health Service for failing to pay more than GH¢61,000 from the auction of nine vehicles into a non-tax revenue account since 2014, as required by the Financial Administration Act.

The said amount was reportedly hurriedly paid into the account days to the sitting and subsequent indictment.

PAC had served notice to the GHS to appear before it in respect of the disposal of government vehicles captured in the Performance Audit Report of the Auditor-General for 2015.

According to the regulations on auctions, proceeds from auction sales must be deposited within 24 hours.

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By: Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post PAC’s ‘soft’ sanctions over auction ‘rot’ at MoFA, GHS rejected appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This follows a petition by the former Secretary to the Management Board of the Factory, Ransford Vanni-Amoah, accusing Mr. Lindsay of perjury.

Speaking to Citi News, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, James Avedzi, said the deputy minister could lose his position if such claims turn out to be true.

According to Vanni-Amoah, a former member and secretary of the Komenda Sugar Project Management Board, the Deputy Minister committed perjury when he appeared before the PAC to provide answers to a report by the Auditor General pertaining to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

He petitioned the PAC, citing events, places and dates that the $35 million Komenda Sugar factory operated, asserting that the Deputy Trade Minister told a blatant lie in his submission to the Committee.

“The petitioner is saying that this is not the true fact. He is saying that actual sugarcane was put into the process from the beginning up to the end which means that Sugar Produced from sugar cane, but that is not the position held by the minister [Ahomka Lindsay],” Mr. Avedzi said.

The PAC Chair added that matter could end up in Parliament if the deputy minister did not show the needed remorse should it be demanded of him.

“If it is found that it [the allegation] is true, and he has admitted that what he said was not true, we will give him the opportunity to apologise and if he refuses to apologise then we will refer the matter to Parliament because it amounts to perjury and he can even lose his position as a minister.”

The committee is still studying the petition at the moment and it hasn’t “taken a decision to invite the minister yet,” Mr. Avedzi added.

When the current New Patriotic Party government was in opposition at the time of the factory’s commissioning, the viability of the $35 million-factory was called into question, with claims it was simply a vote-buying ploy.

Mr. Ahomka Lindsey repeated these concerns, suggesting that Komenda Sugar Factory will lie idle longer than expected, due to challenges such as the lack of raw materials, which has salled full operations.

He has claimed that the variety of sugarcane planted on lands secured for sugar production at Komenda did not contain the appropriate levels of sugar content for production, though persons from the Mahama administration disputed these claims.

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By: Duke Mensah Opoku/Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The 2015 Auditor General’s Report indicted the Board on various counts of infractions; including unrecovered GHc 300,000, failure to submit its internal revenue expenditure returns for over GHc 4.6 million, paying unapproved allowances of over GHc 720,000 and using over GHc 5,000 thousand Ghana cedis of its Internal Generated funds to pay personnel.

[contextly_sidebar id=”i6KvRSlHKMaHOomZRMimUWpMRgrC343F”]The Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh lamented the rot at the National Accreditation Board saying it was being run like a circus.

“I want to plead that the maybe we ask the Auditor Generals to go back to that institutions. For the circus that is going on, I am not happy at all. Since I became the Minister of Education, if there is one institution a lot of petitions have come against on internal controls, it’s the NAB.”

“…So I will plead with the Chair to specifically let the auditors go in again and do a specific audit and come so that we take it up specifically because it is getting too much and we are not happy.”

He also revealed that he had asked the Minister in-Charge of Tertiary Education to invite key persons from the Accreditation Board to his office so they can “give better explanations.”

Despite this report referring to affairs in 2015, Dr. Opoku Prempeh had little confidence the situation had improved.

He noted that “the internal audit agency was there recently on some of these similar situations so I don’t think that sitting here, and having the knowledge that I have, the institution probably has changed. We need to go and do a specific audit there and give specific recommendations…”

The Accreditation Board is mandated to accredit both public and private tertiary institutions with regard to the contents and standards of their programmes.

It also determines the programme and requirements for the proper operation of that institution to ensure they are up to standards.

The NAB is supposed to publish a list of accredited public and private institutions at the beginning of the calendar year and advise the President on the grant of a Charter to a private tertiary institution.

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By: Sixtus Dong Ullo/Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post PAC orders re-audit of ‘circus’ at Accreditation Board appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

As it stands, GRIDCo is owed over GHc 600 million and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is a major contributor to this debt, according to Chief Executive of GRIDCo, William Amuna, who was speaking before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on Monday.

[contextly_sidebar id=”DtUeKOrLF6udjRLHsy1ZqcOCgcZRVaOy”]”The Electricity Company of Ghana continues to build up the debt and unfortunately, we are unable to disconnect them because of you disconnect ECG, it will have a domino effect… virtually everything will come to a stall.”

GRIDCo can opt to disconnect consumers, as happens in its dealings with mining companies when payment is not coming, but in the case of ECG, it has to resort to “other means to get the monies back.”

The company is, therefore, looking forward to the speedy implementation of the energy sector refinancing module that “will ensure that everybody within the energy sector is paid whatever is owed.”

The Volta Aluminum Company (VALCO) also owes GRIDCo in excess of $20 million though “they are operating one port line so it is not much of problem to us,” Mr. Amuna said.

“So we are just banking on the [Energy] ministry coming out with this new arrangement [energy sector refinancing module] to ensure that we get our monies.”

The Director of Finance at GRIDCo, Isaac Kwame Akesseh also explained that the energy sector refinancing module.

“Currently there is an ongoing refinancing where the government is trying to refinance the energy debt stock and as part of the arrangement, there is also going to be put in place a cash waterfall arrangement; where an independent body will do the collection and does the allocation to the various entities as agreed [via a formula].”

Failings at ECG

Some analysts in the energy sector are, however, sceptical this cash waterfall mechanism to help the power sector will yield little results if the ECG fails to improve its revenue collection.

They believe ECG was should overcome the underlying challenge of revenue mobilization and this should translate to the prompt settlement of monies owed all agencies in the supply chain.

The failure of ECG to collect power consumed and pay its creditors has led to major difficulties for players in the energy sector, hampering their operations.

At present, the government is faced with a legacy debt of 2.4 billion dollars sitting on the books of banks.

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By: Sixtus Dong Ullo/Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Mr. Loh, also a former ranking member of the committee, explained that malfeasance are normally highlighted years after the facts because of a backlog issues.

[contextly_sidebar id=”PqZjIfgVwZrfQHxFIV5WXWVgrgpo2H7Q”]“Time is of the essence when dealing with these reports because the people sometimes pass away before we get the money… we would never get to the end of this thing if the backlog issue is not sorted,” he noted on The Big Issue.

The Public Accounts Committee under the seventh Parliament, on Tuesday, begun public hearings to consider financial infractions.

It has looked at reports from the Bank of Ghana’s foreign exchange transaction and receipts and payments for the first half year, and second half year of 2015, performance reports on disposal of government vehicles by the Ministries of Food and Agriculture and Health, and the performance report on drug use in Ghana by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).

Given that the committee is dealing with reports from two years ago, Mr. Loh noted that, attempts at proper accountability were likely to evade the committee.

“The Chief Director, who is the spending officer over the past two years, may have been shifted or has been taken away so who should speak to the accounts? The accountants who did the spending may have retired or died or gone somewhere, so time is of the essence when we are dealing with reports like these,” the former MP explained.

In his view, the accountability systems must be made more flexible to among other things, perhaps ensure that critical personnel in various agencies are made to give account before leaving office.

Flexible system of chairing

This flexibility must also extend to the system of chairing the committee, which normally sees a Minority member of Parliament assume that responsibility, according to Mr. Loh.

For this particular Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, James Avedzi, the deputy Minority leader is serving as the chair.

But Mr. Loh is of the view that, the fact that he is scrutinizing the time period of his government is problematic.

“If we want our public accountability system to work, we should find a more ingenious way of ensuring that at all times, the opposition or the minority who is superintending these accounts is not assessing its stewardship.”

“We are joking when we just take the laws rigidly and don’t find ingenious ways of making its applicability practicable… let’s find a way such that at all material times, the person superintending over the account is not assessing his period of stewardship,” Mr. Loh said.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This follows the ministry’s encounter with the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament which revealed that the ministry and an auctioneer sold 24 state vehicles without due payment for 24 months, among other infractions.

Both ministry officials and the auctioneer admitted culpability when they appeared before the Committee.

The Minister of State for Agriculture, Dr. Nurah Gyeile spoke to Citi News about measures being taken to prevent such infractions from being repeated in future and indicated that Ministry will keep the auctioneers on a shorter leash.

“We take it [for granted] that the auctioneers know their jobs so when they come from the Chief of Staff, we assume that everything is okay so we just allow them to go around and do their job until the audit comes and these queries are coming up.”

“So what we have done is, before an auctioneer is left to go to the field, he must come for a total briefing from us and based on what has transpired here, we are going to exercise caution and take them through all the weaknesses in their system and tell them what could happen so that they will take more caution.”

“We must see the adverts before the auctions are done and that they followed due procedure,” Dr. Gyeile added.

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By: Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post We’ll keep close watch over auctioneers – MoFA appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to that document, the cars were sold off without payment to the appropriate accounts.

[contextly_sidebar id=”LjzCrJd1gmwAzNfz9dK579XfrEznzFXp”]The officials who were grilled by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), on Wednesday, pleaded for a mere caution, explaining that the current Directors of the Ministry were not in charge during the period of the malfeasance.

The acting Chief Director, Benjamin Gyasi, explained that “these issues happened between 2011 and 2013, when I wasn’t the director. But even at that time, we had a deputy Director who was handling these issues, and he is also on retirement now, so it becomes difficult when issues that happened in the past are loaded on someone who wasn’t part.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Gyasi assured that, since that audit, the Ministry has ensured that its affairs are now clean and in order.

“… I have evidence to show that in my time, from 2014 to date, we have done the right thing and we have evidence here to show, so we are not here to argue on what is in the past, but we are coming to plead by saying that we have done the right thing to date,” he stated.

Auctioneer reserved vehicles for staff, failed to advertise auction

The auctioneer, Alex Agyei, was also indicted by the Auditor General’s report, and he all but confessed that he auctioned the 24 vehicles without recourse to  laid down process when he appeared before the committee.

The Auditor’s report indicated that, the 24 vehicles were reserved and sold to MoFA staff, according to the auctioneer, who added that the prices at which they were to be sold were laid down before he commenced the auction.

The report also noted that, of all the auctions, only one, in Ho, was advertised in the national dailies. It also emerged that the Ho auction even took place before the advert was placed.

Alex Agyei, a licensed auctioneer since 2007, said he had also overseen some auctions at about five other Ministries, including the Ministry of Justice, before the Agriculture Ministry.

As the questions came in from the committee, he couldn’t muster a coherent answer fumbling between denial and stopping short admitting to the charge by the report.

After skirting the queries, centering on his failure to advertise the auctions as mandated, Alex Adjei said “for these particular actions, from 2011 to 2013, my subordinate had been doing the publications on my behalf and we had some confrontation with him…”

He eventually resorted to pleading, interspersed with chuckles, saying, “since that time all these things came to the fore, I have changed the whole process so whatever I have done in the past should be forgiven.”

In response to this, the PAC Chairman, James Avedzi noted that “you may be laughing now, but at the appropriate time, you wont be laughing.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post We erred in improper auctioning of vehicles – MoFA appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.