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An audit into the award of and execution of two school projects by the North Gonja District Assembly (NGDA) has uncovered some violations in the Public Procurement Act (PPA), restricting the contract bidding.

The audit conducted by the Ghana Audit Service from April to May last year on the award of and construction of classroom blocks for Lingbinsi Primary School and Tachali Primary School at NGDA in 2014 revealed that the said Assembly advertised the contract in one local newspaper instead two national dailies as prescribed under the PPA.

The two projects though completed have not yet been inaugurated, leaving beneficiary school children to still learn under trees and congested classrooms.   

Madam Renee Elorm Tay, Senior Auditor at the Ghana Audit Service (GAS), who presented the findings of the audit report at a forum at Daboya in the NGDA of the Northern Region on Friday, showed disapproval for the action which she said could deny other interested bidders and called for a change.

The forum, organized by Rural Media Network (RUMNET), a Tamale-based civil society organization (CSO), was to disseminate the findings of the audit report into the award of and execution of the two projects, which formed part of the implementation of the Ghana’s Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms (GSAM) Project.

The GSAM Project, being implemented by a consortium of three CSOs including Integrated Social Development Center, IBIS in Ghana and CARE in Ghana with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAI), seeks to strengthen citizens’ oversight of capital development projects in 100 districts to improve local government transparency, accountability and performance.  

The audit also revealed that the contractor did not produce a programme of work, whiles the NGDA also failed to do enough monitoring and supervision of the projects whiles the architectural drawings of the projects did not meet its -NGDA’s peculiar specifications including lack of per-auditing of payment vouchers and proper approval.

Based on these findings, the GSAM Consortium partners gave the NGDA a scoring of 88 per cent in project initiation, 58% in procurement and contracting, 50% in execution and 13% in project benefits, an assessment that put its aggregate scores in terms of execution of capital projects, at 52%. 

Madam Tay recommended that NGDA should properly procure the services of a certified architect to design its projects to enable it withstand the test of time and ensure value for money.

She also recommended that the NGDA should ensure proper documentation on projects as well as undertake proper monitoring and supervision of projects to ensure quality.

Mr Kanyebui Fordjour Timothy, North Gonja District Coordinating Director responding to the findings of the audit said such anomalies occurred because  the NGDA was a District carved out of the West Gonja in 2012 and promised that efforts were being made to streamline its administrative structure to prevent such occurrences in fruture.

Mr Mahama Nuhu, Communications Officer of RUMNET (one of the CSO grantees on the GSAM Project) said RUMNET would partner with religious bodies amongst other organizations to disseminate the score cards in the District to inform its citizens about its performance in terms of capital projects.

Mr Nuhu urged all citizens of the District to participate in the development process to ensure transparency and accountability.   

Meanwhile, some of the stakeholders and citizens, who attended the forum, could not understand why the NGDA did not immediately inaugurate the projects for use by pupils after they were completed.