A stock-taking in regards to the expenditures made by the Keta Municipal Assembly in 2020 shows that GHC111,297.72 out of money voted to fund the Municipality’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has not been accounted for.
The revelation is found in a report to the Executive Committee by the Finance and Administration sub-committee of the Assembly.
“…the DACF Administrator released the sum of GHC166,280.62 to the Keta Municipal Assembly to be used on COVID-19 Activities but financial statements of the assembly show that the Health Directorate received GHC30,000 and GHC18,982.90 was paid to Ahamu Construction LTD for the supply of Veronica Buckets and theirs accessories. The balance of GHC111,297.72 meant for the supply and installation of 10 No. 3000ltrs of polytanks for storage of water in ten communities could not be accounted. This includes the balance from supply of Veronica Buckets and theirs accessories,” the report said.
It was signed by the Chairman of the Finance and Administration subcommittee, Gilbert Korbla Keklie.
The subcommittee resolved that the missing amount must be refunded by the Municipal Chief Executive, the Municipal Chief Director and the Municipal Finance Officer along with the Assembly’s Budget Officer.
The cash flight had been detected during a meeting of the Finance and Administration Subcommittee of the Executive Committee of the Keta Municipal Assembly which had met on April 29, 2020, July 17, 2020, July 30, 2020, August 14, 2020, and September 9, 2020, and deliberated on financial and administrative matters of the Keta Municipal Assembly.
Meanwhile, it was also observed that the Budget Unit of the Central Administration of the assembly failed to present the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters’ reports on the 2020 budget implementation to the subcommittee.
These omissions, according to the subcommittee, led to budget overruns in some expenditure items like other travel and transportation, official celebration and local travel.
It lamented that the Finance Department of the assembly has been preparing monthly financial statements very late. “ This is making the works of the subcommittee very difficult. The evidence to this delay is that as we speak the monthly financial reports for September, October and November 2020 have not been received by the Chairman to the subcommittee”.
Meanwhile, Ahamu Construction Limited, the company that paid almost Ghc19,000 to supply veronica buckets to fight COVID-19, had also been sole-sourced for a contract to construct a 3 Units Classroom Block at Horvi and paid GHC10,000 from the Internally Generated Fund account instead of the District Assemblies Common Fund account.
It also highlighted that the management of the assembly collected development charges from some developers for the allocation of reclaimed lands at Keta, Adzido, Kedzi and AFLASCO without approval from the General Assembly.
These monies collected were also not included in the 2020 fees fixing resolution of the assembly thing that violates Section 209(1&2) of the Local Governance Act, Act 936(2016).
“That the Zoomlion Ghana LTD has not paid any money to the Keta Municipal Assembly in 2020 for the use of the assembly’s waste management vehicle and the waste bins. Evidence also shows that there is no contractual agreement between the Keta Municipal Assembly and the Zoomlion Ghana LTD for the use of the assembly’s properties,’’ it highlighted.
It was also highlighted that management of the assembly charged food vendors in the municipality GHC28 instead of GHC5 for 2020 screening of food vendors and production of cards. “The management of the assembly again allowed the private consultant to use their own receipts to collect the additional GHC23 without paying any tax to the Government of Ghana. Monies collected at some areas they reported that no works were done due to COVID-19 were found to be lies,’ it said.