Public Accounts Committee presents three year report

Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee on Friday urged the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Controller and the Accountant-General's Department (CAGD) to intensify their efforts at recovering outstanding loans owed to the government.

It also urged them to liase with the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) to recoup debts the new owners of divested state enterprises owed the country.

Mr Steve Akorli, Vice Chairman of the Committee, presenting the Auditor General's report on public accounts for 1996, 1997 and 1998 said loans granted out of the consolidated fund rose from 746.2 billion cedis in 1996 to 1,239.4 billion cedis in 1997 and 1,542.1 billion cedis in 1998.

The report did not indicate the outstanding debts. Mr Akorli said the committee noted: "That the recovery rate of some of these loans is very slow and in some cases dormant.

"Additionally, some of these loans date back to the pre-independence era and some have remained dormant over the past 20 years." Mr Akorli said some of those debts should be written off "since most of the organisations are either defunct or divested".

He said the MOF should come out with specific and deterring sanctions against Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs), which failed to reconcile and confirmed monthly statements issued by CAGD.

Mr Akorli said the audit of 1996 disclosed that dividends amounting to 10.7 billion cedis declared and paid into the consolidated fund by 19 institutions and recorded by the National Revenue Secretariat (NRS) were not captured by the CAGD.

"Similarly an amount of 93.4 billion cedis declared as non-tax revenue by the Ghana Tourist Board did not reflect in the financial statement. "This in the opinion of the Auditor-General indicated a lack of co-ordination between the CAGD and the NRS.

"In addition, it came to light that the equity statement was incomplete, as organisations such Volta River Authority (VRA), Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG), COCOBOD, New Times and Graphic Corporations and the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) were not included in the Equity Statement."

Mr Akorli said at the time of the audit the organisations were not limited liability companies and as they were all wholly state owned, they should have been listed in the Equity Statement.

The MOF was, therefore, asked to assist the CAGD to designate the administering authority for equity investment made in each of the institutions to capture fully returns from equity investments into the Consolidated Fund.

Mr Akorli said divestiture proceeds for 1996 and 1997 amounted to 180.2 billion cedis and 134.2 billion cedis, respectively, and were recorded as revenue instead of classifying them as "other receipts".

He said the committee recommended that the CAGD should collaborate with the Bank of Ghana to ensure that accounts outside the Consolidated Fund were transferred to the fund.

"Additionally, CAGD should capture the Import Declaration Form Account under the Departmental Revolving Fund attached to the annual financial statement".

Seconding the motion, Mr Jacob S. Arthur, NDC-Mfantsiman West, urged the Ministry of Finance to set up an implementation committee to safeguard state funds.

He said the ministry should set up internal audit committees in MDAs to ensure compliance to financial regulations and to freeze the accounts of those agencies that would not comply with the directive to submit their monthly financial reports. The debate on the report continues.