Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr James Klutse Avedzi says there’s a deliberate practice by some state institutions to falsify and backdate receipts when they are invited to the Committee. He has therefore advised them to desist from the practice or face the consequences.
Mr. Avedzi said this when he reviewed documents presented to the Committee by the Water and Sanitation Board in the Ahafo Region on Thursday. Officials of the Water Resources Commission appeared before the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday to answer questions with regard to some audit infractions captured in the 2020 Auditor-General’s report.
For the past two to three years, they’ve not been able to provide satisfactory documents to the Auditor-General. But when they were appearing before the Committee, they came up with a receipt to cover the payments that were made. The Chairman of the Committee however put it to them that the receipts have been backdated.
Officials of the Commission who appeared before the Committee admitted to Mr. Avedzi’s assertion. Replying to the admission, Mr Avedzi said, “that tells you how the system works. Something that happened in 2019 of which the audit was done in 2020, now the receipt was written on 1st February 2023 but backdated.”
He continued, “that receipt when you trace it to the records of that company or enterprise, you won’t get it anywhere recorded in any of their books so the whole system is some way.” Although Mr Avedzi did not apply any sanction for the falsification of receipts, he cautioned state institutions to desist from such acts as they will be made to face the law.
Source: Kwaku Asante
