$54.9m oil money ‘diverted’ from main account – Report

An amount of $54,955,054.06 (GH¢84,966,009.08) Ghana realized from the sale of a cargo crude oil in 2011 was diverted into another account other than the country’s Treasury Main Accounts, a state report has revealed.

According to the 2011 Auditor General’s report, the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) disclosed, as part of revenue into the Consolidated Fund, an Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) of GH¢253,673,603 in respect of the distribution of Oil Revenue for four liftings during the financial year of 2011.

However, the report reveals that the amount from the fourth oil lifting was been transferred into an account named Dedicated Cash Proceeds Account.

“My review of the transfers, however, revealed that unlike the ABFA for the first three distributions which were transferred directly into the Treasury Main Accounts, the fourth distribution of $54,955,054.06 the equivalent of GH¢84,966,009.08 was transferred into the Dedicated Cash Proceeds Account number 1018631513094,” Auditor General Richard Q. Quartey wrote in his report to Parliament released mid-August 2012.

In a response to the audit report, the Controller and Accountant General (CAG) stated that “ordinarily the ABFA is paid into the Treasury Main Account” but in “special circumstances, it may be lodged into the Dedicated Cash proceeds Account”.

However, the Auditor General Mr Quartey recommended that in order to ensure easy tracking of the ABFA receipts from the Petroleum Holding Accounts, all such receipts must be “paid into the Treasury Main Accounts”.

As part of best practices, the Auditor General also recommended the need to provide a memorandum account which will disclose the distribution of the Oil Revenue from the Holding Accounts for each financial year.

By Ekow Quandzie