Information Ministry Seeks A-G’s Help To Trace GH¢1.3 Million Withdrawn From ISD Account Between January And October 2017

The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has appealed to the Auditor-General’s (A-G’s) Department to help unravel the circumstances leading to the withdrawal of GH¢1.3 million from the account of the Information Services Department (ISD) between January and October 2017, without any supporting documents to authenticate it.

According to him, the department had written several letters to the A-G’s department to assist with details to follow up on the persons from whom it might receive answers.

Appearing before PAC last Friday, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said “so, Chairman, we will plead with you: if the audit service can assist us, it will be very easy to find out who signed the cheques for the said amount and for what purpose.”

The said amount was captured in the 2018 A-G’s Report, being considered by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament as unsubstantiated payment.

According to a report by graphic.com.gh, the A-G’s report said a review of the cash book of the ISD revealed that between January and October 2017, the management made withdrawals amounting to GH¢1,313,821 without payment vouchers (PVs) and other supporting documents to authenticate the transactions.

“It said the transactions were contrary to regulation 39 of the Financial Administration Regulation 2004 that states that the head of the accounts section of a department shall control the disbursement of funds and ensure that transactions are properly authenticated to show that amounts are due and payable, and that any order for disbursement that does not meet these requirements is rejected.” graphic.com.gh reported

The Chairman of the PAC, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, has charged the auditors who conducted the audit to provide the cheque numbers that constituted the GH¢1.3 million.

He also asked the ISD to request for a statement from the bank where the withdrawals were made to cross-check with the cheque numbers that would be provided by the auditors, which he believes will reveal the signatories.

That, he said, will definitely reveal the signatories to the account and the purpose for which the money was withdrawn.

“If we have information on that, then we can make progress; without that, it will be difficult,” he noted.