District Assemblies blow GH¢44m cash

The Auditor-General’s report on the management and utilization of District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) for 2011 has revealed that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies across the country misappropriated a total of GH¢43,975,431(GH¢44 million) of the DACF, before the creation of the new 46 assemblies.

The report noted that deficiencies found in the operations of the district assemblies, created the avenue for some officials of the assemblies to mismanage public funds and resources, stressing that the deficiencies and lapses were identified in transactions such as cash management, which recorded massive irregularities, unsubstantiated payments, misappropriation and misapplication of earmarked funds for development programmes, as well as procurement and contract irregularities.

In the Greater Accra region, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Ledzekuku/Krowor Municipal Assembly, Adentan Municipal Assembly, Ga East Municipal Assembly and the Dangme West district assembly were found to have disbursed a total of GH¢587,139 without proper documents to acquit the payment vouchers to promote accountability and transparency, as well as the value for money.

The AMA paid the highest amount of GH¢301,741 to individuals and group of people without proper documentations followed by the Ledzekuku/Kromor municipal assembly which also paid GH¢183,153 without proper documentations.

The GA East municipal assembly in the Greater Accra region misapplied a whopping GH¢260,000 out of its DACF allocation to meet recurrent expenditure it termed as urgent while it also misapplied GH¢2,166 out of its HIPC expenditure on the 27th National Farmers’ Day celebrations contrary to the guidance on usage of the HIPC Funds.

According to the Auditor-General, the project engineer of the Ga East Municipal Assembly approved variations totaling GH¢377,204, for some projects without the approval of the tender committee of the general assembly.

The Adentan Municipal Assembly, which was also cited for a number of irregularities, was also found to be at fault in the award of contracts to 44 individuals for the construction of drains from Japan Motors to Nanakrom., at a cost of GH¢88,344 without passing through the tender process.

In the Ashanti region, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, Adansi North Municipal Assembly, Asante Akim North Municipal Assembly and Bosomtwe district assembly were seen as the highest spending MMDAs with seven other districts spending a total of GH¢1,371,464.26 without the relevant expenditure documents.

In the Eastern region, 18 municipal and district assemblies were found to have made payments totaling GH¢2,485,391 without supporting vouchers for expenditure documents

The worst culprits were the Suhum/Kraboa/Coaltar, Birim North, Birim South, New Juaben Municipal, Akuapem North and Lower Manya district assemblies, which made payments of GH¢614,223; GH¢606,627; GH¢302,156; GH¢140,584; GH¢134,578 and GH¢129,174 respectively in that respect.

Four district assemblies in the Eastern region namely Asuogyaman, Fanteakwa, Birim South and West Akim municipality, were also found to have paid a total of GH¢769,636 to contractors for projects which were either not executed according to specifications, or not executed at all.

Asuogyaman and Fanteakwa topped the list with GH¢587,494 and GH¢100,494 respectively.

East Akim Municipal Assembly was singled out for the most money spent on abandoned projects, that is GH¢533,582 on projects that were eventually abandoned.

The Auditor-General asked the assembly to recover all payments for which no work was done.

In the Brong Ahafo region, Asunafo South and Techiman municipalities were seen as the highest spending assemblies whose activities did not meet the Financial Administrative Regulations while the Gomoa East and Agona East district assemblies were the worst culprits in the Central region.

The Auditor-General, Richard Quartey expressed concern about the grave misapplication and mismanagement of the common fund due to managerial lapses, weak monitoring procedures at the ministerial, legislative and administrative levels of the assemblies as well as non-compliance with the legislative framework and instrument.

He blamed the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for not exercising its monitoring roles well and said all those officials found to have failed to exercise discretion and proper accounting should be dealt with according to the laws of the country.