Financial recklessness: Kumasi Poly tops all

Kumasi Polytechnic has been identified as the leading polytechnic in the country regarding the reckless spending of funds, according to a financial irregularities index released by think tank IMANI Centre for Policy and Education for the period of 2012 to 2014.

The report pointed out: “Ranking either first or second in the yearly rankings across the three years [of review], Kumasi Polytechnic was first on the cumulative list, racking up GHS 23.7million in irregularities representing 28.2 per cent of the cumulative total” under the category of polytechnics in the Ghana.

If further stated: “More than 95 per cent of the institution’s irregularities were attributed to cash irregularities…in particular, payments from the institution’s Internally Generated Funds (IGF) were made without parliamentary approval, totalling GHS7.4million in 2013 and GHS10.6million in 2014. Worryingly, it appears that these cash irregularities had been increasing, nearly tripling from GHS4.2million in 2012 to GHS10.7million in 2013 before dropping off slightly to GHS7.7million in 2014.”

IMANI, therefore, suggested that such cash irregularities needed to be dealt with appropriately, and management had to also seek parliamentary approval before expending internally generated funds in order to achieve proper reforms at the institution.

Takoradi Polytechnic followed in second position “with a total of GHS23.6million in irregularities, representing 28 per cent of the cumulative total”.

With GHS15million in total financial irregularities, representing 17.8 per cent of the cumulative total, Sunyani Polytechnic ranked third.

Wa Polytechnic, with financial irregularities totalling GHS7.1million representing 8.4 per cent of cumulative irregularities within this category, ranked fourth on the list.

In total, cumulative fiscal recklessness for all polytechnics across the country amounted to GHS 83,601,182.29.

The report also ranked financial irregularities at ministries, departments and agencies (MDAS), boards of public corporations, and pre-university institutions for the same period.

In total, financial irregularities cost the country GHS3,933,608,067.52, from 2012 to 2014 due to failure to adhere to rules and regulations pertaining to debt management.

IMANI also recommended that the Auditor General exercise the powers of surcharge and disallowance in order to curb the wanton and intentional disregard for regulations, laws, and procedures.

For the NGO, acts of financial recklessness and mismanagement will continue to fester until recalcitrant public officials and institutions are penalised for malfeasance.

It added: “It is imperative that the sections of the Public Procurement Act are amended, in order to fully spell out fines or other sanctions for non-compliance by public officials. These sanctions, when exercised, will seek to serve as a deterrent to other public officials.”