The report that the Auditor-General has uncovered financial irregularities amounting to about GH¢17.5 billion in the 2021 audit report of public boards and corporations and other statutory institutions is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that the Auditor-General has uncovered financial irregularities amounting to about GH¢17.5 billion in the 2021 audit report of public boards and corporations and other statutory institutions.
It represents a 36 per cent jump from the 2020 figure of GH¢12.85 billion.
In the last five years, financial irregularities in public boards and corporations have hit over GH¢50.8 billion.
The GH¢17.5 billion uncovered in 2021 was mainly caused by the credit power sale of GH¢6 billion the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) customers.
The irregularities were mainly in the form of cash, tax, payroll, debts and loans, stores and procurement, contract, rent and credit power sales.
Apart from cash locked up in nonperforming investments on recoverable loans and outstanding debts, there were also some financial infractions of GH¢4.7 billion due from customers of the VRA and GH¢1.2 billion due from customers of the NEDCo for power supplied.
According to the audit report, the debts arose as a result of forex power sale, mines, sale of power to ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), sale of power locally and the COVID-19 power relief.
The Auditor-General attributed the debts to the absence of an effective debt collection policy, non-existent credit controls to recover the debts and management indifference to loan recovery.
Consequently, he recommended to the management of public boards and corporations to put in place proper policies for the management of loans and other receivables to ensure that loans and debts were repaid on due date to avoid or minimise the occurrence of bad debts.
The newspaper says that a Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr John Kumah, said one key intervention in the revenue mobilisation drive was the automation of the revenue administration processes and big data management, which he said would help increase government revenue.
He said the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) had also introduced a number of revenue administration systems such as the Integrated Customs Management Systems (ICUMS), the Ghana.gov. platform, the cashless system, the Revenue Assurance and Compliance enforcement interventions and the debt management measures, which are all aimed at increasing government revenue.
“These key interventions are meant to identify and eliminate revenue leakages by taking out the human factor in the processes and block revenue loopholes.”
“This is a sure way to improve domestic revenue mobilisation and improve the revenue to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio for Ghana from the current 13 per cent to the 20 per cent target by 2023,” he stated.
Dr John Kumah said this when he delivered a speech at the 2022 Internal Audit Conference held in Accra.
He said the Ministry would continue to rely on Internal Auditors to provide assurance on revenue administration to improve the work of revenue administration.
Dr Kumah said in order to ensure macroeconomic stability and fiscal policy of the country, the government had introduced several policy initiatives aimed at creating jobs and accelerating economic development.
The Ghanaian Times reports that Ghana recorded a reduction in new infections and related death cases of AIDS by 26 per cent and 38 per cent respectively between 2017 and 2021.
This, according to the Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), Dr Kyeremeh Atuahene, was as a result of the resources, expertise and commitment invested towards the fight against the disease over the past years.
Dr Atuahene was speaking at the launch of the 5th edition of the National HIV and AIDS Research Conference (NHARCON) in Accra yesterday which would come on in April next year.
The Conference, which is a flagship programme of GAC, and organised every four years is aimed at providing a platform for the sharing of ideas in support of the implementation of the current National Strategic Plan 2021 to 2025.
It also formed part of GAC mandate to disseminate and share HIV and AIDS strategic information with its stakeholders and partners in the implementation of the National Response.
The Director General further asserted that despite the reduction recorded, GAC faced challenges as over 100,000 individuals in the country lived with HIV without knowing their status.
This, he said, had a potential of preventing the GAC’s of achieving its goal of 95 per cent status knowledge, 95 per cent in the administration of anti-retroviral drugs and 95 per cent in viral suppression.
He noted that misconception about the virus accounted for the low knowledge of status among individuals in the country and therefore encouraged individuals to go for testing as it was free.
The Programmes Manager for the National AIDS Control Programme, Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo stressed on the need for key stakeholders in the health sector to make use of data and information for policy formation and interventions.
The newspaper says that the Minerals Commission has reiterated its position that no company has been issued a licence to undertake reconnaissance, prospecting and exploration of minerals in any of the country’s Forest Reserves since March 2021.
Any company, including Messrs. Koantwi Company Limited, which is engaged in mining in a portion of a Forest reserve, it said, was granted a mining lease and same ratified by Parliament as far back as September and December 2020 respectively.
This was contained in a statement signed and issued in Accra yesterday by Martin K. Ayisi, Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission.
Thereafter, it said the company was granted an approval for the issuance of a Forest Entry Permit to mine within a portion of the Forest Reserve, and not to undertake reconnaissance and prospecting.
The statement said the ban on reconnaissance, prospecting and exploration in Forest Reserves issued in 2021 by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor was still in force.
It explained that the government banned reconnaissance and prospecting in Forest Reserves, except in exceptional circumstances saying that environmental protocols for mining were more stringent than reconnaissance and prospecting.
“The ban was imposed because people acquired reconnaissance and/or prospecting licences and turned around to mine, causing extensive damage to the Forest,” it added.
The ban, however, the statement said, does not extend to mining or the actual extraction of minerals.
GIK/APA