By Yussif Ibrahim, GNA
Fomena (Ash), Nov. 20, GNA – The Ghana Audit Service (GAS), has identified poor supervision and monitoring by assemblies during the execution of capital projects, as one of the key factors contributing to sub-standard works by some contractors.
According to the Service, most assemblies do not do thorough inspection on completed projects and also fail to issue completion and defects liability certificates.
These were among key findings of a performance audit conducted by GAS in 50 selected districts across the country under the Ghana’s Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms (GSAM) project.
The GSAM project was developed by a consortium made up of Care International, Oxfam and the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) in partnership with other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), citizen groups and GAS.
The social accountability project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), seeks to strengthen citizen’s oversight of capital projects to improve local government transparency, accountability and performance.
Under the project, GAS selects two capital projects in beneficiary districts and conduct performance audit on them with the goal of ascertaining whether there were value for money in the execution of the selected projects.
The audit focuses on four main areas including initiation and planning, procurement and contracting, project execution and project benefits.
It is against this background that a District town hall meeting to disseminate the performance audit results and scorecards has been held at Fomena in the Adansi North District.
The District which scored 48 per cent in the audit had two school projects including a three-unit nursery block at Brofoyedu and a six-unit classroom block at Fumso audited.
Mr Richard Pappoe, a Principal Auditor at GAS, who presented the findings, said the Adansi North District Assembly made payments without conducting due diligence to ensure that all relevant documentations were available before effecting payments.
He said the projects did not have documented evidence of supervision by the District Works Engineer during the projects which were executed between 2015 and 2016.
The Assembly, he said, issued a practical completion certificate to contractors of both projects without accompanying inspection reports.
“The Assembly did not evaluate the two projects executed in order to identify challenges and find remedial measures for future projects,” Mr Pappoe stated.
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