12th April 2023 5:26:35 PM
2 mins readThe Bolgatanga Technical University has been fined by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to pay a sum of GH4,000 for undervaluing a water packaging machine.
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The machine was purchased at the cost of GH¢10,000 ten years ago and later sold at GH¢6,000 cedis.
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According to the committee, the action of the management of the university has caused financial loss to the state hence the need for them to pay the difference.
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The University procured the machine to go into water production, however, the contractor who was charged to construct the building for the production site failed to honour the contract hence the inability of the university to make use of the
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This came up during the first day of hearing in Tamale by the committee to consider the 2020 Auditor General’s Report on Technical Universities, Reports on the Management and Utilisation of District Assemblies’ Common Fund and other Statutory Funds for the year ended December 31, 2020, in the Northern, North East, Upper East, Upper West and the Savanna Regions.
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Asked by the committee if they adhered to the auditors’ recommendation to put the machine to use, a representative from the University said, “Subsequent audits also indicated that we either put the machine in use or we dispose of it. We were having challenges in implementing it. We needed to construct a place to house the machine where we could produce the water from.
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He stressed, “We awarded the facility to a contractor alongside renovation with one of our blocks. The contractor couldn’t get his statutory payment certificate. He felt frustrated and abandoned the projects. With our limited resources, we couldn’t complete the structure, so we decided to dispose it, taking into consideration how long it has been sitting there”.
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The Committee said, “Your negligence and improper planning have caused the state GH¢4,000. I want to surcharge you with GH¢4,000. It’s supposed to be more than that but let’s maintain it”.
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