AG indicts Ministry of Finance for forging loan receivable balance

The Auditor General has indicted the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for fudging loan receivable balance in its 2016 financial statements.

The 2016 financial statement reported an amount of GH¢1, 988,361,506 as the total loan recoverable balance.

The Auditor General’s review of the schedule on loans recoverable, however, disclosed that loans totalling GH¢97,485,166, granted to some 170 companies and SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) “who have either become defunct, divested or non-profitable for over 10 years were still captured and reported in the Public Accounts.”

Again, the Auditor General noted that disputed amounts of GH¢14,978,700 and GH¢5,108,187 standing against GNPC and Vodafone respectively since 2007 and 2008 had not been investigated and reconciled to establish their true position and recoverability before they were reported in the Financial Statements.

The Auditor General further observed that three transactions, including two court judgments detailed below, were not captured by MoF and CAGD (Controller and Accountant General Department) in their books, as a result, these were omitted in the CF Accounts.

According to the Auditor General in his December 2016 reports on the Public Accounts of Ghana (Consolidated funds) “periodic monitoring and reconciliation among debtor institutions, PDI (Public Debt and Investment and DMD (Debt Management Division) were done on ad hoc basis and therefore not comprehensive to cover the entire receivables.”



“The issues noted above indicates that records underpinning the loan balance were not reliable and thus the Loan Recoverable balance reported in the 2016 CF (Consolidated funds) Accounts is misstated and cannot be substantiated.”