Audit Service orders Wa West, Nadowli Kaleo assemblies to refund money

The Audit Service has instructed the Wa West and the Nadowli Kaleo District Assemblies to refund an amount of GH?,955.00 and GH?8,702.18 respectively being overpayments of contracts.

The Service gave the instruction during separate town hall meetings in Kaleo and Wechiaw organised by the Ghana Strengthening Accountability Mechanism Project (GSAM) in collaboration with the Wa west and Nadowli Kaleo District Assemblies on the theme: “Performance Audit on Implementation of Capital in the Wa West/Nadowli Kaleo District Assembly".

Mr Alfred Nii Okanta Ankra, the Principal Auditor said a 2018 audit of two projects under the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) from 2014 to 2017 in each of the two districts discovered an overpayment.

He said the projects included; 40-bed capacity children ward and a 4- Unit Classroom Block both at Wechiau in the Wa West district and a CHPS Compound and a 3- Unit Classroom Block at Dah and Nanvilli in the Nadowli Kaleo District.

According to Mr Ankra, the districts failed to conduct proper monitoring on the projects, which resulted in the payments of services that were not rendered by the various contractors and were considered as overpayment and the amount was to be refunded by the project supervisors.

Mr Ankra said the 3-Unit Classroom Block at Nanvilli was supposed to come with urinary pit and doors according to the contract, but the doors were not provided as indicated, but full payment was effected.

With regard to the procurement process, Mr Ankra said the Nadowli Kaleo District Assembly breached the Procurement Act since the contracts were not advertised by the Assembly to give equal opportunities to all contractors as required by law.

“The audit indicated that most of the District Assemblies do not conduct effective monitoring on projects and most projects awarded to contractors are not taken through the procurement process as in the case of Nadowli Kaleo, which is a breach of the laws of the country,” he said.

The audit service scored Wa West 64 per cent and Nadowli Kaleo 49 per cent with both placing 7th and 33rd respectively out of 50 districts across the country on the audit league table organised by GSAM with funding from the USAID.