State Corporation destroys audit documents
The State Enterprise Audit Corporation (SEAC) says it has shredded the working documents of the audit it conducted on the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) between 2001 and 2003.
It could, therefore, not tell the exact number or types of petroleum production equipment and other fixed assets that were disposed during the period it audited the Corporation, Mr Fredrick Boniface Senahia, a Senior Manager at the SEAC, told the Judgment Debt Commission at its sitting in Accra on Monday.
He said the shredded documents contained specifics of the fixed assets of the GNPC that were disposed during the period that the Corporation was audited.
Mr Senahia, however, submitted 2001 audited accounts statements to the Commission.
He said SEAC could not give a clear breakdown of the GHc230 million being monies accrued from the sale of fixed assets that were disposed of, adding that it could not also explain how a profit of GH¢160, 000 and a balance of $4.4 million in the audit report were obtained.
Mr Senahia said the Corporation had a challenge with the working papers on GNPC because the Auditor General’s Department, which authorised the Corporation to carry out audit works on some state-owned institutions, including ministries, departments and agencies had reallocated the GNPC account to a different auditing organization.
He said the Corporation had destroyed the documents because within the 10 years period that it submitted the audited report to the Auditor General’s Department, there had not been any query on the report.
The State Enterprises Audit Corporation was established in 1965 under Act 232, Legislative Instrument 468, to audit state-owned enterprises and other ministries, departments and agencies.
Mr Justice Yaw Appau, Sole Commissioner of the Judgment Debt Commission, expressed disbelief at Mr Senahia statement and bemoaned the poor record-keeping practice by state institutions in Ghana.
“The State Enterprise Audit Corporation needs to take a serious look at how it keeps its records”, he advised.
“Without the working papers, what you have given us cannot send us anywhere. The eyes of Ghanaians are on us. How can an audit organization destroy valuable ‘working papers’ within 10 years just because no query had been issued on them?”, he queried.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Ministry of Energy, and the Attorney General’s Department also appeared before the Commission on Monday.
Source: GNA