<<Print>>

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on Wednesday gave a three-month ultimatum to the Head of Accounts of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) to furnish the Committee with documentation on transactions he undertook. The PAC said he would be compelled to reimburse the state with the value of the deal if he fails to produce the documents on the transaction. Mr Paul Awuah negotiated some financial transactions to the tune of GHC11, 112 and GHC 9,350 for the NVTI but when auditors from the Auditor-General�s office scrutinized the accounts of the organisation, documentation on those transactions could not be traced. The PAC members, who are currently holding public hearings to consider the Auditor-General�s report for the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years, were amazed by goings-on at the NVTI and ordered that Mr Awuah should refund the amount involved in those transaction by December if he fails to provide evidence to substantiate his claim. The Deputy Auditor-General told the PAC that his outfit cannot establish whether those payments were made or not because no documentation to that effect had been brought to their notice. To compound the situation, the NVTI, the Auditor-General�s report revealed had also breached the Financial Administration Act, 2003 (Act 654) by not paying surpluses made at the end of the year through internally generated funds into the Consolidated Fund, as mandated by the Act. The NVTI, according to the Report, had not finalized its financial reports for the 2007, 2008, 2009 fiscal year for validation by the Auditor-General, a clear breach of the Financial Administration Act, that demands that government subvented institutions submit their accounts to the Auditor-General every financial year for validation. Mr Awuah, told the Committee that he was not aware of certain provisions in the Law, and accepted that statutes of the country had been breached and described the anomaly as �a fundamental mistake on our part�.