The Chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Abena Osei-Asare, has called for stricter enforcement of sanctions against public officials who engage in financial misconduct.
According to her, weak punishments continue to fuel recurring infractions in public institutions.
Speaking after a PAC sitting with pre-university schools from the Western and Central Regions, Madam Osei-Asare said the committee’s overall assessment from its zonal sittings points to poor record-keeping and inadequate documentation as major challenges affecting schools across the country.
She revealed that many schools fail to properly maintain records and only begin searching for documents to support expenditures after auditors begin their work.
She explained that the committee has reviewed schools from 10 out of the country’s 16 regions; however, the same financial management problems continue to surface in all the regions visited.
“Overall assessment is what have been running through all our zonal sittings, and that has to do with poor record-keeping and documentation of information.
“Because clearly most of the infractions that they’re cited for are when the auditors leave that they take their time, look for the documentation, and buttress their expenditure with these documents, it is not right.
“Documentation filing and a record keeping are one of the challenges that all the Secondary Schools, the assemblies have. We have been able to sit, I mean look at 10 Regions out of 15 regions, and it runs through all the regions,” she explained.
The PAC Chair, who also served as Member of Parliament for Atiwa East, raised concerns about the failure of many secondary schools to register lands belonging to their institutions, describing the situation as a growing threat to school properties.
Ms Abena Osei-Asare further stated that Parliament would have to collaborate with the Lands Commission to ensure lands belonging to schools are properly registered and protected from encroachment.
