Following the hullabaloo that met the media reports that the Gomoa East Assembly (GEA) spent GHC81,000 on the funeral of a former District Chief Executive (DCE) of the area, late Kingsley Ahunu-Armah, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Parliament, James Klutse Avedzi, has come to the defence of the assembly.
According to him, the Gomoa East Assembly followed the correct procedures in setting the budget for the funeral expenses of the late DCE who passed away while in office in 2015.
He pointed out that the issue had already been resolved.
“Our concern was the quantum of the amount involved. At the end, we realised that the District’s Finance Officer, Coordinating Director and Chief Executive confirmed it. The expenditure for the funeral was a decision taken by the Executive Committee of the Assembly. The matter was brought to the General Assembly which also adopted the decision that because the DCE died while in service, the Assembly should foot the bill of the funeral, so proper procedures were followed,” Mr. Avedzi told Citi FM in Accra yesterday.
Mr Avedzi stated that the initial concerns raised by the PAC were in relation to the withdrawal of GHC51,000 cedis from the Common Fund for the funeral.
The chairman of PAC, however, stated that the Assembly had replaced the money, which had been used with funds from its Internally Generated Fund (IGF) but did not indicate it in its official logs.
According to him, what the auditors noted as the budget initially was GHC9,700 cedis, but the DCE corrected that it was GHC90,000 cedis.
“What was actually spent was GHC81,000. There was an issue of GHC51,000 of this amount spent out of the Common Fund and we said the Assembly can’t use money from the Common Fund for the funeral, it should be the IGF. There was a project that was supposed to be funded by the Common Fund money so they used funds from the IGF to fund that project,” he said.
He explained that the assembly did not make the entry to reflect whatever was spent from the Common Fund.
When quizzed whether the committee did not consider the expenses on the funeral itself excessive, the PAC chair said that “no basis” to determine whether the amount spent was too much.
“The committee has no basis to say that the GHC81,000 spent was too much, we don’t have any basis to compare whether the amount was too much or too small.”
Meanwhile, speaking on the same platform, the former Central Regional Minister, Thomas Aquinas Quansah, who doublesdas the acting DCE at the time, said although he could not remember the exact amount he signed, he believed it was less than the GHC90,000 budgeted for the event.
“The bill that came to me wasn’t [90,000 cedis]. I don’t keep these figures in mind but I know it was less than GHC81,000 cedis that was approved. But later there were reports of budget overruns but I don’t think it was GHC90, 000. I remember signing off on the budget. All I could do was to approve for the Assembly to go ahead with the funeral,” he said.
However, speaking earlier on the show, the current DCE for Gomoa East, Benjamin Otoo, stated that the Economic and Organised Crime Office was still investigating the matter.
He said a few officials of the Assembly, under whose tenure the expenditure occurred, had already been questioned by EOCO.
Meanwhile investigations conducted by Today have revealed that hiring of chairs and canopies cost GH¢15,000.00, transportation GH¢10,000.00 with food and drinks alone costing GH¢32,988.00.
The funeral ceremony was attended by district, municipal and metropolitan chief executives (MMDCEs) as well as some regional executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Interesting in 2015 the total amount of revenue generated by the Assembly from property rates, lorry tolls, bar licences, tickets, building permits and sand winning was insignificantly GH¢176,513.00, which means that the Assembly spent more than half of its revenue on the funeral of the deceased DCE.
<<Print>>