Stop Misuse of Govt Funds- Sottie (Page 38)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah (January 28, 2008)
THE Controller and Accountant-General, Mr Christian Tetteh Sottie, has warned government employees who misappropriate government funds to desist from that practice or face administrative and legal actions.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, Mr Sottie said those who handled government funds should know that the funds belonged to the whole nation and so they should not handle it anyhow to the detriment of Ghanaians.
“We should all contribute our quota to make the economy more stable,” he stressed.
Touching on the activities lined up by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) for the year, the controller said the department had put in place measures to further improve its performance in the years ahead, adding that in that direction the CAGD had begun a programme to visit each region to interact with pensioners and workers to know at first-hand the problems associated with their salaries, wages and related allowances, saying that it was better to offer education, since sometimes people acted out of ignorance.
Mr Sottie pointed out that the first of such interactions took place in Suhum in the Eastern Region on Tuesday where a large number of pensioners had the opportunity to ask questions.
He said notable among the questions were why their pension payments had not been adjusted upwards and also the issue of financial demands on the part of officials who worked on the payments.
He explained that a process had begun to adjust the allowances of all pensioners nation-wide and stressed that the payments were being adjusted as and when the personnel received the necessary inputs from the districts.
On bribery, he advised that persons who fell victim to such activities should be bold to expose those involved, else it would be difficult for the authorities to know and punish them.
He announced that there were also plans this year to restructure the treasury functions for efficiency and also make payments less tedious and arduous.
Mr Sottie, in addition, gave assurance of a better payment system this year, since many of the problems with the computer software had been rectified.
“We hope to pay workers on a timely basis and also pay the right amounts due them,” he pointed out.
He also urged ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to provide the needed human resource training programmes for especially their accounting staff to improve upon their performance.