Minister condemns disregard for sound financial management

Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education, has expressed dismay about the complete disregard for sound financial management by officials of the National Accreditation Board (NAB).

He said since he became a minister, he had received a lot of petitions concerning the NAB due to its poor internal controls.

Dr Opoku Prempeh raised the concerns when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to respond to some infractions in the 2015 Auditor General’s Report concerning NAB.

The PAC is currently holding public sittings on the Report of the Auditor General for the Public Accounts of Ghana for the year ended 31st December, 2015.

Dr Opoku Prempeh pleaded with the Auditor General to go back to NAB to do more work and present a better report to the PAC.

He said he was not happy that officials who were paid to ensure good job was done were neglecting their responsibilities.

He said he had also instructed the Minister of State in-Charge of Tertiary Education to invite the officials to his office to give better explanation on their internal control system.

Mr James Klutse Avedze, the Chairman of the PAC, upon a request from Dr Opoku Prempeh, directed the Auditor General to go and assess the internal control system of the NAB.

He charged the Auditor General to go beyond the internal control assessment and undertake any other audit that could help make the entity viable.

Mr Kwame Darteh, the Executive Director of NAB, responding to questions from the Committee, said though the law allowed the Board to use some of the internally generated funds, this was done through the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Finance for approval.

He said the allowances for the Board and Council members were set and approved by the Ministry of Finance.

He explained that whenever NAB wanted funds to pay allowances to Board members it wrote to its sector Minister who forwarded it to the Ministry of Finance for approval.