Auditor-General on heels of Bimbilla District Education Directorate for paying contractors for jobs never executed
The Bimbilla District Directorate of Education has been indicted by the Auditor-General for paying contractors for projects that were never executed.
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According to the Auditor-General’s Report for the year ended 2013, the directorate paid GH¢102,250 to Global Almas Ltd and M/S Expert Construction in the year under review for the construction of seven boreholes and a classroom block but the companies neither executed the projects nor did they refund the money.
The report took a serious view of the development and called for a refund of the money to the state.
It also stated that a contract valued at GH¢74,323.33 was awarded to M/S Expert Construction Ltd for the construction and furnishing of a three-unit classroom block with ancillary facilities at Duni, a village in the Nanumba North District.
Almost half of the contract sum (GH¢36,000) was paid to the contractor but no documentation was found on the said contract.
Further probe
A follow-up to Duni by the Auditor-General revealed that no such project had been executed in the community.
Further investigations revealed that the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nanumba North, through a memo, requested the payment of the said amount to the contractor out of his share of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) allocation to the directorate.
According to the report, the MP’s directive, however, should not have been used to set aside the procurement laws and procedures to be followed in the award of the contract.
“This has resulted in a loss of GH¢36,000 paid for the non-existent project,” it indicated.
“We urge management to ensure that the contractor executes the intended projects or refund the GH¢36,000 to the directorate with interest. Failing the above, the amount should be recovered from the District Director of Education and his accountant,” it added.
Borehole contract
The report indicated that there had been a review of a contract document for the drilling of seven boreholes costing GH¢70,000 awarded to M/S Global Amas Ltd.
That review, it said, revealed that the contractor neither purchased the bid document nor was the company part of the bidding process that led to it winning the contract.
Additionally, no explanations or reasons were captured in the minutes of the tender committee for not awarding the contracts to M/S Abotwa and Sons Company Ltd, whose bid was the lowest.
According to the report, M/S Global Almas appeared to have been deliberately hand-picked over any of the companies that tendered for the contract, so that it could serve the ultimate purpose and intention of the Bimbilla Directorate Entity Tender Committee.
“It was not surprising, therefore, that M/S Global Almas Ltd eventually did not drill the seven boreholes, even after the contract was pre-financed, and the contractor has since not refunded the mobilisation money of GH¢47,250 paid to him for the contract for which he did not even provide a surety guarantee bond, as required by the Procurement Act,” it said.
Dual desks
In another development, the report said the directorate paid GH¢23,300 to M/S Piesie Yeboah for the supply of dual desks for which no contract-related documents such as bids, award letter, contractor’s acceptance letter, among others, were found.
The failure to provide documentation on the supply of dual desks, it said, meant that the Auditor-General could not accept that the items had been supplied.
“We viewed this as a deliberate attempt to manipulate the procurement process. We recommend that appropriate sanctions under the Public Procurement Act be imposed on the officials who awarded and authorised the bogus contracts,” it said.