Officials of the Nkoranza South Municipal Assembly have been given one month ultimatum by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to retrieve an amount of GH¢5,590 from one Mary Pokuaa, a former revenue collector of the assembly, who is currently on retirement.
According to PAC the officials of the assembly would be made to pay the amount if they failed to do so.
Ms Pokuaa received the said amount as unearned salary whiles on retirement and it was detected by Auditors on during auditing.
The Chairman of PAC, Dr James Klutse Avedzi announced this when the Nkoranza South Municipal Assembly appeared before the Committee to respond to infractions committed by the assembly as contained in the Auditor General’s report for the year under review in Sunyani, yesterday.
When asked about the action taken to retrieve the money, Mr Alfred Lumor, Coordinating Director of Assembly told the Committee that several letters written to her on the need to pay the money had yielded no results adding that, Ms Pokuaa claims she had no money to pay the said amount.
The Chairman of PAC who was not satisfied with the response instructed him to get Ms Pokuaa arrested.
“She should be picked up by the police and the family would find money to come and pay,” he said.
We are giving you one month to report back to us or else the money would be shared among you and the district finance officer to pay.
The Committee also instructed the assembly to renegotiate a better deal with the company collecting property rate for the assembly.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Yagaba-Kubori in the Northern Region, Abdul Rauf Tanko Ibrahim in his submission indicated that the 30 per cent agreement entered between assembly and the company was on the high side and that they needed to renegotiate downward saying at least 10 or 15 per cent would be a reasonable deal.
He explained that they could not be using huge chunk of the assembly’s money to pay commission at the expense of development projects in the municipality.
The Coordinating Director responded that he was not at post when that contract was entered into and that the contract would be abrogated next year when it ends.
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH SUNYANI
