A former Central Regional Minister, Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, has disclosed that the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) has initiated investigations into circumstances that led to the GHS80,000 funeral expenditure on the late Gomoa East District Chief Executive, Isaac Kinglsey Ehun-Armah.
Mr. Tawiah Quansah, who was the regional minister in 2015, and doubled as the acting DCE when the apparently large sum was spent, said he approved the expenditure because it had already been sanctioned by the Assembly.
He told Citi News that “this particular case is under investigations because the Central Region’s EOCO called me for some clarification. They set up a committee and they brought their quantities and eventually, there was a budget overran.”
The current DCE for Gomoa East, Benjamin Otoo, also confirmed that the matter was still being investigated by EOCO.
He said a few officials of the Assembly, under whose tenure the expenditure occurred, have already been questioned by EOCO.
“Some portions are still under investigation by EOCO so we are waiting for the outcome of that and then we’ll be in a better position to say whether the expenditure was justified or not. They invited the then Coordinating Director, the Finance Officer and all those involved in the planning of the programme for questioning. They presented all the necessary documents to EOCO for investigation and at the moment, nobody else has been invited,” he said on Eyewitness News.
It emerged on Tuesday that the Gomoa East District Assembly could not provide full documents to auditors to support the payment of monies back into the state coffers, after over GHc80, 000 was expended from the Common Fund on the funeral of a former District Chief Executive [DCE] in 2015.
According to the 2015 Auditor General’s report, the budget for the funeral of the late DCE, Kingsley Ahunu-Armah, shot up from an initial GHc9, 000 to more than GHc80,000. The PAC later explained that the initial budget was actually Gh90,000 and not Ghc9,000 as reported earlier, which means the Ghc81,000 was less than the initial budget.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday in Takoradi in the Western Region, Accountant for the Assembly, Ebenezer Mensah, justified the difference in expenditure, and has been asked to provide additional documents.
Later on Eyewitness News however, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, James Klutse Avedzi, said the misunderstanding over the expenditure had been settled, adding that, their interest was not to establish whether the amount spent on the funeral was high or not.
“The Gomoa East issue has been resolved. Our concern was the quantum of the amount involved. In the end we realised that it was confirmed by the District’s Finance Officer, Coordinating Director and Chief Executive. The expenditure for the funeral was a decision taken by the Executive Committee of the Assembly. The matter was brought to the General Assembly which also adopted the decision that because the DCE died while in Service, the Assembly should foot the bill of the funeral, so proper procedures were followed. Mr. Avedzi said on Eyewitness News.
Mr. Avedzi stated that the initial concerns raised by the PAC were in relation to the withdrawal of 51, 000 cedis from the Common Fund for the funeral.
He however stated that the Assembly had replaced the money which had been used with funds from its IGF but had not indicated it in its official logs.
“Initially, what was the auditors noted as the budget was 9, 700 cedis, but the DCE corrected that it was 90, 000 cedis. In the end what was actually spent was 81, 000. There was an issue of 51, 000 of this amount spent out of the Common Fund and we said the Assembly can’t use money from the Common Fund for the funeral, it should be the IGF. There was a project that was supposed to be funded by the Common Fund money so they used funds from the IGF to fund that project,” he said.
“But they did not make the entry to reflect that whatever was spent out of the Common Fund had been replaced, so we asked them to do the proper thing in order to correct it and explain that they replaced the money from the Common Fund with money from the IGF; so there is nothing before EOCO in this matter.”
When queried about whether the Committee did not consider the expenses on the funeral itself excessive, James Avedzi said that the PAC had “no basis” to determine whether the amount spent was too much.
“The committee has no basis to say that the 81, 000 spent was too much, we don’t have any basis to compare whether the amount was too much or too small”.
PAC scolds MMDAs over financial mismanagement
In February 2018, various state institutions incurred the wrath of the Public Accounts Committee for blatantly flouting the country’s financial regulations.
Members of the PAC raised serious concerns about the continuous mismanagement of resources disbursed to state institutions particularly the Regional Coordinating Councils, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.
The PAC, is chaired by Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzie, and members of the committee raised the concern at a sitting in Tamale when they were reviewing the Auditor General’s 2015/2016 report of public institutions.
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citinewsroom.com/Ghana