CENTRAL MEDICAL STORES CAN’T ACCOUNT FOR THEM

Tema (Greater Accra) -- Drugs and other items worth ?405m at the Tema Central Medical Stores cannot be accounted for. This was contained in the 2000 Auditor-General’s (AG) Report presented to Parliament on Wednesday.

According to the report, 116 payment vouchers (PV) involving ?239.8m raised by three polyclinics were also not presented for audit. The report did not mention the three polytechnics involved. The validity and genuineness of the transactions involved could, therefore, not be determined by the auditors.

According to the report, various sums of money representing hospital fees, drugs sold and other miscellaneous fees amounting to ?161.2m were misappropriated by staff of the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Similarly, ?30.4m could not be accounted for by three employees of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and Bimbilla Health Centre. The report noted that items valued at ?81.3m and fully paid for by five health institutions had not been delivered.

It also revealed that health institutions in the Greater Accra Region purchased drugs worth ?832.4m from the open market without obtaining non-availability certificates from Central or Regional Medical Stores to establish the non-availability of drugs at the stores.

The situation, the report said, contributed to the apparent increase in the level of stock by the Central Medical Stores, which at the end of 1999 amounted to over ?6bn. It stated that two former employees of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, Kumasi, were paid unearned salaries amounting to ?2.1m. An accountant at Regional Highways Authority, Koforidua, misappropriated revenue amounting to ?3.9m. The report however, did not name the affected officers.

Out of the an amount of ?31.5m drawn from the Breast Cancer Savings Account between November 1998 and April 1999 by the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD), a sum of ?6.5m is yet to be recovered. Three staff members of the NCWD who were granted loans to purchase means of transport in 1994 and 1997 resigned from the service of NCWD without settling their indebtedness of ?2.4m.

It noted that a sum of ?23.3m was spent on staff end of year party in 1999 while no provision was made in the NCWD 1999 approved budget for that purpose. The staff of Y2K project office also failed to honour their tax obligation to the state amounting to ?139.9m. The report urged management of the affected organisations to take measures to recover the said amounts.