Noguchi
The 2020 Auditor-General’s Report on the audit of statutory boards and corporations has revealed that Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research does not have an International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) accreditation to be able to perform its laboratory studies.
Due to that, they are unable to conduct research into communicable and non-communicable diseases and provide high-end laboratories such as diagnostic, monitoring and surveillance services in support of national public health public relations.
Hence, NMIMR continuous to rely on the services of other vendors to perform diagnostic and laboratory studies.
Additionally, the report said it has noted that an amount of GH¢1,152,819.00 was advanced to various Officers at NMIMR upon request to undertake several activities that remained unretired as of the end of 2018.
The report has then tasked the Management of the Institution to establish clear timelines for the retirement of imprest and failure should warrant the withholding of the imprest amount from the affected staffs’ salary.
Again, Management should ensure that the outstanding amount of GH¢1,152,819.00 is recovered from the respective officers.
‘’We noted that NMIMR did not have a funding strategy or dedicated research reserve to provide underlying financial resources to undertake research activities for effective structural transformation of our socio-economic environment except over-reliance on the benevolence from development partners’’ the report stated.
However, the Management has been tasked to ensure that NMIMR takes steps to obtain the requisite ISO accreditation and engage a diagnostic expert to provide such services internally, and also establish a research fund to provide sustainable dedicated resources towards research activities.
BY Daniel Bampoe