A-G’s report: ‘Avoidable’ penalties, commitment fees on loans 'swallowed' GH¢38 million

The Auditor-General’s 2019 report has said avoidable penalties and commitment fees on loans guzzled GH¢38,294,627.27 of Ghana’s revenue.

The Treasury and Debt Management Division of the Ministry of Finance is responsible for the management of the government of Ghana’s loans, which include the repayment of both principal and interest on loans as per various loan agreements.

“As a follow-up to our previous audit observation, we noted that in 2019, GoG continued to incur high cost on penalties and commitment fees of GH¢5,226,605.12 and GH¢33,068,022.15, respectively”, the report added.

It said penalty payments have, therefore, increased “consistently from GH¢1,236,420.52 in 2017 to GH¢5,226,605.12 in 2019, notwithstanding the assurances by the Public Debt Management Division that their processes had been re-engineered to reduce the debt processing time and consequently, minimise the payment of penalties”.

The Auditor-General said: “We reiterated our earlier recommendation for effective monitoring and timely processing of payments debts and interest on due dates”.

The Audit Service also recommended that the Ministry of Finance and the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) “ensure that planned programmes and projects are undertaken to avoid payment of high commitment fees”.