Audit Service to surcharge banks

The Audit Service on Tuesday indicated its readiness to surcharge any participating commercial bank,that defaults in transferring tax receipts collected from the various transit accounts into the respective Bank of Ghana Holding Accounts.

It said the action was in accordance with Article 187 of the 1992 Constitution.

A statement issued in Accra by Mr George Swanzy Winful, Deputy Auditor General said “Our attention has been drawn to a publication in the social media in connection with our letter No. EID/B.Line/AUD/20/7 issued on the October 5, 2020 concerning our audit observation on transfer of tax receipts by GCB to unknown sources amounting to GHC52.5 billion.

It said the record that the audit in reference, was a special audit exercise, which was requested by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta in a letter dated August 15, 2020, based on the mandate of the President under Article 187(8).

The statement said the request included; the confirmation of the transfer of receipts from the various transit accounts maintain by commercial banks into the respective BoG Holding Accounts from 2015 to date.

It was also to provide assurance that all CCVRs of Customs dating back from 2015 to date were duly credited to the authorized bank accounts within the specified periods.

The request was also to investigate and confirm that all transfers and debits in all Government accounts were duly approved by the Controller and Accountant-General and the Ministry of Finance from 2015 to date.

“Please be informed that our letter in circulation is one of the letters which we issued to participating commercial banks for their responses to infractions noted during our reconciliation of their statements,” it said.

The statement said with the assistance of both the commercial banks and Bank of Ghana, they were able to trace with satisfaction, some of the transfers.

It said the cooperation from the participating banks was encouraging and “we are hoping to complete the reconciliation exercise soon. We shall submit the audit report to Parliament,” it added.