Nine Assemblies has spent over 4m on workshops, fuel, honorarium etc.This was disclosed during the Zone four (4) public hearing of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Takoradi, Western Region. 

According to the 2022 Auditor-General’s Report this has resulted in an excess expenditure of Ghc 2,706,135.00. 

Explaining further in the Report, the Auditor-General noted that part 1 of the 2019 Guidelines for utilisation of the DACF requires that up to 10 percent of the allocations to the Assemblies should be disbursed on administrative expenditure. 

The report added that nine Assemblies received a total a Common Fund allocation of GHc 20,977,699.78 with allowable 10 percent of GHc 2,097,769.98 for administrative expenditure. 

The Auditor-General recommended in the report that Management of the nine Assemblies should refund the excess expenditure of Ghc 2,706,134.55 from their Internal Generated Fund (IGF) accounts into the DACF accounts and desist from violating the guidelines. 

Later, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. James Klutse-Avedzi noted that the Committee will strongly recommend in its final report to Parliament that all expenditure exceeding the required 10 percent for administrative purposes should be rejected on the GIFMIS platform. 

This he believes will help solve the over-utilisation of Common Fund on administrative expenses within the Assemblies.

Sompaonline.com/Nana Yaw Boamah