The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has urged managers of public universities to strictly adhere to prudent financial management and accounting principles to ensure the judicious use of resources.
At its sitting yesterday, the committee observed that failure by the public universities to maintain appropriate accounting regimes did not only result in financial loss to the state but also deprived the institutions of the resources needed for development.
The admonition by PAC followed the revelation of some financial irregularities by some of the universities in the 2017 Auditor-General’s report.
Among other things, the report cited the universities for not keeping updated financial records, failure to account for some expenditure, defaulting in paying the right tax rates and their inability to recover money from debtors.
The institutions which appeared before the committee yesterday included the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the University of Ghana, the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) and the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE).
UMaT
At the PAC sitting, it came to light that the UMaT had not properly accounted for GH¢18,777.
When the management of the university, led by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof J.S.Y, Kuma, appeared before the committee, it was established that GH¢10,100 of the amount went into the preparation of documents covering three parcels of land of the institution.
However, the Finance Director, Mr. Jonathan Sakoe, could not convince the committee with evidence on the whereabouts of the remaining GH¢8,677.
Based on that, the Chairman of the PAC, Mr. James Klutse Avedzi, directed Mr. Sakoe to immediately refund the GH¢8,677 that could not be accounted for in the 2017 Auditor-General’s report.
In his explanation, Mr. Sakoe said a former registrar of the UMaT who had supervised the disbursement of the money was now on retirement. He, however, said steps would be taken to retrieve the remaining amount from him.On that premise, Mr. Avedzi, directed Mr. Sakoe to pay the money as a matter of necessity for failing to act to retrieve it."You are hereby surcharged to refund the GH¢8,677 to the university yourself, and whatever you do to retrieve the money from the former registrar will be your business," he stressed.Among other irregularities the UMaT was cited for by the Auditor-General’s report were delays in lodging funds into the appropriate accounts, expenditure higher than income, leading to deficit, liabilities rising from GH¢4 million to GH¢7 million […]