Rot In Police Service Exposed

The 2003 audit report shows that the Ghana Police Service is also not free from the irregularities associated with the civil institutions. The report reveals that under the Owusu Nsiah administration, there was disregard for the financial Administration Regulation Act.

Audit of the police service, covering the period July 2002 to August 2003 points out that on paper, the police administration paid 1,297,141,993 to businessmen and organisations for goods and services. But at the time of auditing, there were neither receipts nor any documents to show that payments were indeed made.

This, according to the report is in violation of Section 277 of the Financial Administration Regulation Act which makes it obligatory for all public institutions to obtain the relevant receipts from the payees to properly acquit the payment vouchers in acknowledgement of the payments. The service also failed to comply with laid down procurement procedures which require purchases to be made in bulk and approved by the Procurement committee, the report said.

It indicates that procurement valued at ?880,194,626 were made without passing through any competitive bidding, thereby raising a suspicion of shady deals in the procurement.

In July 2002, the report noted, management paid ?30.2million to Feligra Enterprise to construct fence walls at Bungalows No.6 and 7, Nima Avenue, but could not produce any supporting contract documents such as payment certificate, bill of quantities and certificates of satisfactory work done when the auditors requested for them. Between the same period, the Estate Unit of the service purchased store items valued at ?97,545,175 without passing through stores; items for use were also issued without any authorities requisition. At the CID headquarters, the report noted, 21 arms and ammunitions and magazine dealers failed to pay their license fees for 2002 and 2003 resulting in arrears of 66,5000,000 and ?175,000,000 respectfully. Further examination of the LSRP register revealed that exhibits recovered during police/military patrols including cash of ?2,016,000, three TV sets, three video decks and two amplifiers and a total of ?420,000 brought in by a good Samaritan from makola market on various dates were neither recorded in the register, nor produced for inspection. According to the report, the management of the Ghana Police Hospital granted mobilisation advance of ?50,000,000 to one of the contractors who was working on the Out-Patients Department in September 2002, but the amount had not been recovered as at time of audit in July 2003. Worse of all, the report revealed that as at May 2003, the Service accumulated debt to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) was ?32.35billion. The TOR supplies fuel on credit to the police service and the cost settled when funds are available. As at the time of the audit in May 2003, the accumulated debt owed TOR by the Ghana Police Service together with interest was ?32,353,308.

The report further noted that the debt attracts an average monthly interest of ?580,000.000.

Calculated on this basis, the police service has contracted an additional debt of ?13.920billion between June 2003 and 2005, as interest on the 32.35billion. Against the advice by the audit service that the police management ensure the payment of the debt to avoid paying further interest, the service had rather turned to the ministry of finance and economic planning for the settlement of the debt.