PAC Gives NVTI Three Months Ultimatum To Produce Vouchers

The Public Accounts Committee PAC has issued a warning to the National Vocational Training Institute NVTI to produce vouchers covering payments sums of money issued at the institute.

The Auditor General�s report for 2010 indicated that during the period under review, 35 payment vouchers amounting to 28 thousand Ghana Cedis were not presented for audit.

Again,some other payment vouchers amounting to 19 thousand Ghana Cedis were without adequate supporting documents, thus they could not be substantiated.

As a result, the Auditors could not ascertain whether the payments were in furtherance of the objectives of the Institute.

The Chairman of the PAC Kweku Agyeman Manu gave the Executive Director of the institute three months to produce the records covering the payments or in default the accountant of the Institute Paul Awuah be surcharged with the amount.

This came up when the heads of the institute appeared before the PAC.

The surcharging of the accountant is due to his failure to ensure proper custody of financial and accounting records, a situation which could result in illegitimate payments.

The Executive Director of NVTI, Stephen Amponsah blamed their inability to readily provide the vouchers are due to fact that some of their documents have been misplaced due to the relocation of their offices.

Other areas the Committee found fault with the NVTI were Failure to transact business with VAT registered entities, Fuel and lubricants not logged and Payments to interdicted officers.

It came out that the report on the five interdicted officers was before Parliament. Mr. Agyeman Manu therefore assured the head of the NVTI of the House�s resolve to quickly work on it.

Also before the Public Accounts Committee was the Minister of Communications Dr. Omane Boamah and officials from the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission and the Ghana Investment fund for Electronic Communication.

Source: GBC