Report of the Auditor General on the Management and Utilisation of the District Assemblies Common Fund and other Statutory Funds for the year ended 31 December 2022.

For the 2022 financial year, total allocations to the 11 Assemblies in the Upper West Region were GH¢12,312,767.50. Out of which, a total amount of GH¢4,294,154.69 was deducted at source in favour of the Assemblies’ Service Providers leaving net cash transfers of GH¢8,018,612.81 representing 65.12 percent of the total allocations.

Cash Irregularities

Some Financial Transactions and Payments were made outside GIFMIS Platform contrary to Regulation 83 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378)
requires that all payments for expenditure of covered entities shall be made on the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System.
Contrary to the above, three Assemblies manually processed and paid GH¢1,108,830.51 on 124 payment vouchers outside the GIFMIS Platform. Details provided below:

Management explained that their GIFMIS platform has been confronted with network challenges, which they are working to restore it.

The situation could affect the financial reporting of the Assemblies.

We recommended to the Coordinating Directors and the Finance Officers to notify the GIFMIS Secretariat of the Assemblies’ challenges in using the system for redress.
Excessive use of DACF fund on recurrent expenditure – GH¢331,832.29.

Section 7 of the public financial management Act, 2016 (Act 921) states among other things that a Principal Spending Officer of a covered entity shall (a) ensure the regularity and proper use of money appropriated in that covered entity.

The District Assembly common fund guideline for 2020, stipulates that, up to ten per cent of the District Assembly Common Fund should be used on recurrent expenditure in the areas such as human resource management, logistics support, office furniture and fitting, servicing and maintenance and project management.

Source: Upperwestmedia.net