Records of the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA), some dating back to 2002, were destroyed when fire gutted parts of the authority’s head office in Accra.
The incident took place a day ahead of an Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) forensic audit into the operations of the authority.
Fire gutted the finance department of the GMA last Wednesday, destroying every document and leaving the institution with no financial records in hard copies.
No backup
“Unfortunately, we do not have a backup of what we lost and the authority has all this while been keeping records manually,” the Director-General of the GMA, Mr Kwame Owusu, confirmed to the Daily Graphic yesterday.
He explained that a team from EOCO was at the GMA to begin a preliminary forensic audit, but the fire incident occurred on the eve of the scheduled date (last Thursday) for the full audit.
He said investigations were underway to establish the cause of the fire and until then, he could not conclude whether the incident was arson to cover up malfeasance.
The authority
The GMA was established by an Act of Parliament (Act 630 of 2002) with the responsibility of monitoring, regulating and coordinating activities in the maritime industry.
It is headed by a director-general with a 13-member governing board, made up mainly of institutional representatives from key maritime agencies.
Mr Owusu, who assumed office in March this year, said he took over an institution in dire financial straits.
Millions lost
The director-general said the authority, in 2016, lost GH¢7 million as a result of financial impropriety, citing the lack of prudent financial management as responsible for the situation.
He posited that the financial immodesty found expression in the expenditure of the authority which far exceeded its income.
“The ideas I am bringing here are re-engineering and cost cutting. Things are now getting better and there is a lot we can do,” Mr Owusu said.
Monitoring
On how effectively the authority was monitoring the country’s territorial waters, Mr Owusu expressed concern that the GMA, since its inception, had no patrol boats to monitor territorial waters.
He, therefore, noted that he would champion an effort to procure more surveillance equipment and patrol boats to secure the country’s waters.
Source: Daily Graphic
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Black man black man....you people are indeed cursed !!!
You took over in March 2017, are you saying you haven't kept any hard copy of your findings. Some of you guys exaggerate the corruption of the previous government officials. It is you Owusu or whatever you called yourself will be held responsible in case it is find out to be inferno.
Oh Ghana, after they chopped the money and burnt the medical stores, you did not take any precautions and went ahead to warn them ahead of a forensic audit; and what did you expect? I think the government should secure all institutions that they suspect 'yaanom' have embezzled money to prevent such occurrences.
Is this how the black man manages his own affairs?
That's Ghana for you. Tweaaaaa! So you want us to believe this act of WICKEDNESS & ***barred word***? HELL NO!! PEOPLE MUST GO TO JAIL.
If were to be them i should have arrest all of them because is totally a plan work ...Eii Ghana mmmmmmmmmmmmm
if the cause of fire is not well investigated, more headquarterses will burn to cover up stealing!!
So, it means that forensic audit is not possible anymore?
People are obviously trying to cover up their misdeeds. heartless human beings.