MMDAs blow cash; Auditor General cries over chop chop

Thousands of Ghana cedis could not be accounted for by various ministries, departments and agencies, according to the latest Auditor General’s report covering the year 2010 to 2013.

According to the Controller and Accountant General’s report presented to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), most ministries and departments exceeded their budget allocations by over 300 percent, running into billions of cedis.

The Controller and Accountant General, Ms Grace Francisca Adzroe at the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee to answer questions for the financial irregularities in the audit reports said, in 2012, the Electoral Commission spent 180 million cedis instead of the approved 20 million cedis.

At the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, 746 million cedis was spent in 2012 instead of 270 million cedis.

The Ministry of Youth and Sports was allocated 46 million cedis, but spent 253 million cedis.

An amount of 94.7 million was allocated for government machinery. They also overrun the allocated budget of 158 million cedis in 2012.

The Ministry of Chieftaincy and Traditional affairs also spent about 450 percent more of the allocated budget under the Appropriation Bill.