Customers owe VRA more than GH¢5.4m as at December 2019, pays over GH¢244,000 to one Dr. Ofori-Atta – Auditor-General
The Auditor-General Report for 2020 has uncovered a debt of more than GH¢5.4 million owed to the Volta River Authority (VRA) as at the end of December 2019 by the organisation’s customers.
According to the Auditor-General, its review of the Authority’s receivables reconciliation and ledgers disclosed a total amount of GH¢5,487,969,144.11 due from customers for power supply as at December 31, 2019. It therefore, recommends to VRA’s management to intensify its efforts and improve its debt recovery strategies to recover the outstanding receivables.
The Auditor-General also found that a total amount of GH¢131,302.74 was paid by the Authority to 71 Officers as salary advances. This amount, it indicated remained unrecovered as at December 31, 2019 even though the beneficiaries separated between 2013 and 2017.
“We recommended that, all outstanding loans and advances should be deducted from the end of service benefits and properly accounted for in the books of accounts failing which the amount should be recovered from the approving officers,” it said.
The audit further disclosed that, the VRA Health Services Limited has no Service Level Agreement with the VRA and recommended that management should ensure that a Service Level Agreement is signed with the Authority.
The Auditor-General as well found that contrary to Regulation 102 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378), advances and prepayments of the Hospital for goods and services totalling GH¢343,261.20 was not retired as at December 31, 2019, and recommended that the unretired advances should be adjusted in the personal name of the Principal Spending Officer or the holder of the imprest or the ultimate recipient of the imprest as appropriate and recovered.
The government auditor in addition, found after a review of the Hospital receivables reconciliation that there is a total amount of ( GH¢21.5m) GH¢21,575,271.57 due from customers for various health services rendered as at December 31, 2019 and made recommendations to Management of the Hospital to intensify efforts and improve its debt recovery strategies in order to recover the outstanding receivables.
The audit further found that a total amount of GH¢244,340.00 out of GH¢367,800.00 paid to Dr Paul Ofori-Atta, a representative of MOTEC-Life UK, on implant and Hospital fees charged from healthcare services were without adequate supporting documents, and urged Management to provide it with original invoices from the supplier and acknowledgement of official receipt from MOTEC-LIFE UK.
Additionally, it said a review of incorporation documents obtained from the Registrar General’s Department revealed that Raymond John Lartey wholly owns Volta River Authority Health Services Limited with 500,000 shares, and recommended that the Board of VRA should ensure that the shares are transferred immediately to Volta River Authority.
Auditors found that the Hospital has no Service Level Agreement with the VRA and recommended that Management should ensure that a Service Level Agreement is signed with the Authority.
“Contrary to Regulation 102 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378), advances and prepayments of the Hospital for goods and services totalling GH¢343,261.20 was not retired as at December 31, 2019. We recommended that the unretired advances should be adjusted in the personal name of the Principal Spending Officer or the holder of the imprest or the ultimate recipient of the imprest as appropriate and recovered,” it added.
The Auditor-General’s Report is released every year and has become something of a ritual. Even though the Auditor-General is empowered by law to exercise his powers of ‘disallowance and surcharge’, the only time that was ever exercised was when Daniel Domelevo was Auditor-General from 2016, until he was pushed out of office this year.
According to information on its website, the VRA was established on April 26, 1961 to generate, transmit and distribute electricity under the Volta River Development Act, Act 46.
However, following the promulgation of a major amendment to the VRA Act within the context of the Ghana Government Power Sector Reforms in 2005, the VRA’s mandate has now been largely restricted to generation of electricity. This amendment has created an enabling environment to attract Independent Power Producers (IPPs) into the Ghana Energy market.
The amendment also hived-off the VRA’s transmission function into a separate entity designated the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), while the distribution agency, the Northern Electricity Department (NED), established in April 1987, also evolved into the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), a wholly owned, standalone subsidiary of the VRA.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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