The Chairman for the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Mr. James Klutse Avedzi, has stated that the Public Accounts Committee will not tolerate reports on unaccounted Payment Vouchers (PVs) of the various agencies cited by the Auditors-General.
Mr. Avedzi indicated that account documents on Payments Vouchers should be made available to auditors at the time of auditing, to ensure proper accounts keeping of the various agencies.
The Public Accounts Committee Chairman who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Ketu North, reiterated that unaccounted Payment Vouchers by the various agencies is intentional, and that heads of the various departments deliberately hide them due to audit infractions.
Mr. Avedzi added that the deliberate attempt to hide PVs during auditing is to correct accounting infractions and cover wrongdoing in subsequent auditing.
This came to light when the Lands Commission in Sunyani was cited in the 2016 Auditors-General report for some unaccounted Payment Vouchers.
The Auditor-General report also revealed that some unapproved monies were paid to some staff of the Commission.
Mr. Avedzi explained that it is the duty of accounts clerks and accountants to prepare, produce and make Payment Vouchers available for the necessary payments, and that, unaccounted PVs cannot be accepted.
Response from the Auditors-General’s Department
Providing detailed information on the unaccounted Payment Vouchers by the Sunyani Lands Commission, a representative from the Auditors-General’s Department told the Committee that upon the report of unaccounted PVs, auditors were assigned to find out the cause and it came to light that there was a disconnect between the Regional Land Officer (RLO) and the Commission’s accountant.
He explained that both the accountant and Regional Land Officer (RLO) were egoistic and were not co-operating in providing information on the unaccounted PVs.
The Auditor-General’s representative informed the Committee that when the auditors were on site at the Commission, the accountant and the RLO were unconcerned and were directing responses on the unaccounted PVs to each other.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
