Dr. Eric Oduro Osae addressing the media
A total of 255 representing 86% of the 261 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have passed the Public Financial Management Compliance League Table (PFMCLT) assessment.
This is as a result of submitting the adequate documents evidencing their compliance with the accounting, reporting, and budgeting requirements of the Public Financial Management (PFM) cycle.
According to the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) report on PFMCLT, only 11 representing 4% of local government (10 Municipal Assemblies and 1 District) scored above the 50% pass mark while six Metropolitan Assemblies scored below the required 50% with 22% as the national average.
Four out of six Metropolitan Assemblies scored above the national average of 22% but below the 50% required pass mark while 20 municipalities and five districts performed better than all six Metropolitan Assemblies.
Meanwhile, 80% of local government agencies could not submit adequate documents evidencing their compliance with the accounting, reporting and budgeting requirements of the PFM cycle.
Speaking at the launch of the PFMCLT report in Accra, Former Administrator of District Assembly Common Fund, Joshua Magnus Nicol, bemoaned the increasing rate of irregularities as stated in the 2022 Auditor General’s report.
He said, seven districts in the Eastern region failed to attach the required expenditure documents such as invoices, statements of claims, and receipts to payment vouchers amounting to GH¢257, 000, while 41 revenue collectors of six assemblies failed to account for revenue amounting to GH¢5, 000.
“Similarly, 31 revenue collectors from eight districts collected GH¢391,500 from market tickets. This irregularity is popularly practiced in many of the assemblies,” he said.
Director General, Internal Audit Agency, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, on his part said the PFMCLT report has been instituted in collaboration with the Centre for Local Governance Advocacy (CLGA) to help check irregularities in the assembly in the fight against corruption and improve service delivery.
“If only 4% of local governments in Ghana have a good financial management system then it should be a cause to worry about. As an Internal Audit Agency we need to understand the issue and deploy our internal auditors to strengthen the control system within these institutions and make sure that next year we will be able to have more institutions crossing the 50% pass mark,” he added.
At the end of the launch of the report, 10 MMDAs were awarded for their sterling level of compliance performance scores.
According to the order of ranking Weija Gbawe Municipal Assembly scored 59%, La Dadekotopon 57.50%, Adenta Municipal 57.00%, Kwahu South 56.50%, Effia Kwesimintsim 55.50%, Mfantsiman Municipal 53.00%, Ayawaso West 52.50%, Wa Municipal 52.00%, Assin Foso 51.00%, and Krachi Nchumuru 50.00%.
By Prince Fiifi Yorke