Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana – Public Boards, Corporations and Other Statutory Institutions for the year ended 31 December 2020 has cited management of the Ghana Maritime Authority for procurement breaches.
The report said the management breached Section 40 of Public Procurement, 2003 (Act 663) as amended by awarding a sole source contract to Zeni Lite Buoy Co. Ltd without approval from the Public Procurement Authority.
The report, therefore, recommended that the Management of the GMA should be sanctioned in accordance with Section 92 of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act663) as amended.
“Contrary to Section 42 of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) as amended, we noted that the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) used the price quotation method in procuring goods with contract values that exceeded the threshold for price quotation.
“We urged Management to always adhere to the provisions of the Public Procurement Law.”
Meanwhile, the officials who authorized the transactions (the Director-General, Deputy Director-General, Finance and the Head of Procurement) should be sanctioned in accordance with prescriptions of Section 92 of Act 663 as amended, the report added.
Aside from the breaches, management granted new loans totalling GH¢375,000 to 11 staff, who have not fully repaid their existing loans of GH¢327,706.64.
Management again granted loans totalling GH¢220,000 to 10 staff who were still serving their probation.
The Auditor-General recommended to Management recover all the outstanding loans and institute measures to ensure compliance with the provisions in the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
Ghana Railway Authority
Ghana Railway Company has failed to transfer their accumulated statutory deductions, the Auditor-General’s report said.
The accumulated statutory deductions totalling GH¢11,027,425 due Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and SSNIT.
The report for the year 2020 ending December 31 urged management to take the necessary steps to pay all the amounts owed GRA and SSNIT.
The report said it discovered that management did not recover advances granted to staff totalling GH¢165,427.
This amount included GH¢70,110 due from Retired staff. We recommended to Management to ensure that, all staff who owe are cleared by the Authority before their benefits are paid to them. Management should also ensure that applicants for loans and advances provide guarantors to support the application.