Two South Tongu Assembly officers will be surcharged for failing to deliver two JCRs, per a directive from the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.
The Revenue Supervisor and the Finance Officer should be surcharged because, according to PAC Chairman Hon. James Klutse Avedzi, their actions amounted to a dereliction of duty.
The PAC’s ongoing investigation of the auditor-general’s report for the year that ended in 2023 on District, Municipal, and Metropolitan schools as well as a few senior high schools from the Volta, Eastern, and larger Accra Region at Ho, the Volta Regional capital, revealed this.
Two JCRs were unable to be produced for auditing, according to the audit report. The Committee was informed by the Assembly that the JCR’s officer of record resigned, but the Assembly rejected the resignation. Assembly officials stated that the matter has been referred to law enforcement. The chairman gave the order to report the matter to the Economic and Organized Crime Office so that she can be arrested.
“ I think that you relaxed, you didn’t take action on time, you should have caused her arrest long time.”He said auditors should calculate the average for the JCR’s to determine the amount involved.
“ We will surcharge the Revenue Supretendent and the Finance Officer for relaxing, if we do that you will be active to do the right thing.” the Chairman said.
While there has been some improvement in terms of some assemblies, the PAC Chairman retreated from the need for commitment on the part of the institutions cited, adding that these infractions could have been avoided if the assemblies had been committed, in an interview with the Senior Public Affairs Officer at the conclusion of the four-day PAC Zonal public hearing on Friday at Ho.
He cautioned that not all of the concerns should be brought before PAC and urged assemblies to act morally.
According to him, concerns over the SHS’s failure to return textbooks shouldn’t be addressed before the Committee.
Additionally he emphasized that issues about unpresented PV’s or unsupported documents at the time of the audit are done deliberately. “ On the Secondary Schools, most of the issues are about unearned salaries, people who validate teachers do not do the right thing, they don’t see the Teachers available but go ahead to validate them.”
He said we have asked some them to refund the money to serve as a deterrent.
He also lamented on he growing menace in Technical Universities where people who benefit from Government Scholarship refuse to come back to serve, Mr. Ave Avedzi said PAC will provide recommendations for review of the guarantor system such that guarantors will now be made to bring a property such that when they fail to come back government can claim the asset to defray the cost.
Source: newsthemegh.com