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The Chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr James Avedzi, has cautioned heads of institutions and accountants among other serving officers to do due diligence and ensure strong financial discipline during their tenure.

That, he said, would help them avoid queries by the PAC, Economic and Organised Crime Organisation (EOCO) and Auditors after retirement, adding: “We want all serving officers not go in for loans without the approval from the necessary authorities, retirement can’t save them.”

Mr Avedzi gave the warning when the committee considered some infractions in the 2019 Auditor-General’s Report, during its sitting in Takoradi, which cited OLA College of Education for contracting a loan without prior approval from the relevant authorities.

When the new Principal, Dr Mrs Regina Okyere-Dankwa, and team appeared before the PAC, they reported that the principal and the accountant, who supervised the action under consideration, had retired.

She said though she invited the former principal to accompany them to the PAC hearing to explain the issues, he failed to show up.

The Auditor-General report found that the former Principal of OLA College of Education had contracted a loan of GHc250,000 with an interest of GHc300,000 from Akatakyiman Rural Bank to renovate the college’s chapel without the required approval from neither the College Council, Director General of Ghana Education Service ( GES), Ministry of Education nor the Minister of Finance.

It again noted that the principal was unable to provide any agreement on the loan with the bank.

However, the audit further disclosed that a total amount of GHS 206, 249.94 from a monthly installment of GHS 11,458.94, had so far been repaid, and that the principal indicated that students were billed to finance the loan, resulting in overburdening the students and guardians.

“We recommend that the principal and the accountant should desist from the practice and always seek approval from the appropriate authorities before loans are contracted. We further recommend that the two officers should be duly sanctioned for non-compliance of the Act,” the report added.

Meanwhile, on cash irregularities, the College raised 27 Payments Vouchers (PVs) totaling GHS 1,378,505.55, the AG report cited, which was due to poor supervision by management and the laxity of the accountant.

These undermined transparency and accountability, it said, indicating that the transactions did not provide reasonable assurance that the funds were used in the interest of the school.

It, therefore, recommended that the principal and accountant should refund the amount to the school.

Also, 11 staff of the College had defaulted in repayment of salary advance totaling GHc24,539, the AG report indicated, attributing the delays to the inability of the accountant to put in appropriate measures to recover same.

“The non-recovery of advances could deny other staff from benefitting from the facility, we recommend that management should recover the amount from the staff concerned and further institute measures to strengthen the rate of recovery of advances,” the report said.

The OLA College of Education was also flagged for breaching the procurement Act by engaging in non-competitive bidding contrary to section 20 of the Public Procurement Act (Amended) 2016 (Act 914) involving 27 PVs amounting GHc407,547.

“Management failure to adhere to requirements of the Procurement Act resulted in the lapses and we could not ascertain whether the amount expended on goods were fair and reasonable and value for money obtained. We recommend the appropriate sanction against the Head and accountant,” it said.

On the PVs, Mr Avedzi noted that 17 out of the 27 had been cleared, “but we need to know how payments for the outstanding PVs were done.”

He asked the College authorities to communicate to those persons to report to the auditors within two weeks, failure for which the PAC would recommend appropriate sanctions.

On the Akatakyiman loan, the PAC Chairman urged the principal and the accountant to endeavour to contact the retired staff to cooperate else they would be sanctioned in accordance with the laws.

Ranking Member, Mr Kofi Okyere Agyekum, MP for Fanteakwa South, said the EOCO, after retrieving monies on behalf of institutions, did not send them back and suggested that the committee took a serious view on that.