Public Accounts Committee reprimands DCE

Accra, Dec. 17, GNA- The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on Wednesday recommended that the Wenchi District Chief Executive, Mr Joe Dankwah be reprimanded in writing for unilaterally awarding a contract without recourse to the Assembly.

It also recommended for intensive orientation courses for newly appointed District Chief Executives (DCEs) to apprise them of rules and regulations of the Assembly, practice and procedure and management practices of the Local Government system.

The Committee further recommended a review of the institutional structure of the local government system to strengthen the role of the Presiding member and the Assembly in financial transactions of the District in order to check arbitrariness.

Mr Alban Bagbin, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee said this when he laid the Report of the Committee in Parliament on Wednesday on the award of contract for the renovation of the official residence of the DCE of Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo Region.

In May 2002, the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey permitted the member of Wenchi West, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah to ask the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister the circumstances surrounding the award, execution and payment of the contract for the renovation of the bungalow for the occupation of the Wenchi DCE.

In view of the inability of the Regional Minister to satisfy the members with the answers while supplementary questions from members also raised a lot of doubt on the veracity of the answers, the Chairman of the Committee sought leave from the Speaker for the Committee to investigate the matter and report to the House.

In considering the matter, a sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee went to Wenchi and took evidence from the DCE, some members of the Assembly, the District finance Officer and some members of the Tender Board and also inspected work on the project.

Additional evidence was taken from the then Regional Minister, Mr Ernest Debrah and the Member of Parliament for Wenchi West.

The Committee observed that the proper procedure was not followed in awarding the contract and it was not submitted to the District tender Board for consideration while there was neither written contract between the Assembly and the contractor nor between the DCE and the contractor. The contractor commenced work upon verbal instructions of the DCE, the terms and conditions of the contract were not documented and in addition, the contractor had no prior working relationship with the Assembly to indicate his ability to deliver.

The Report said the Committee cannot be able to indicate authoritatively the amount that constituted financial loss to the State in the matter but stated that there were some financial irregularities in the award, execution and payment of the contract.

It noted that materials mobilised for the project did not passed through the stores, stores issue vouchers were found to be forged while the documents were found to be hastily prepared to indicate that the materials were actually received and issued by the stores.

The report said it was the considered view of the Committee that invoices submitted by the contractor supporting the payment of 25 million cedis was an after-thought and that he only procured the receipts to cover the cost of the materials after the issue was published in the media.

The committee observed that amount of 25 million cedis paid to the contractor was not commensurate with the actual work executed. The findings of the Committee are that the award of the contract for the renovation works was solely done by the DCE, the award was very irregular and improper and there was financial impropriety in the acquisition of the materials for the renovation while nobody could tell the actual quantum of materials used while payment for work done was also in dispute.

The House would later debate the Report.