The Wa Municipal Assembly has been fingered again to have violated the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936) for spending 329,117.26 Ghana Cedis beyond what has been approved by the General Assembly in its 2020 annual budget.
This means that, the Wa Municipal Assembly spent the said amount without approval from members of the assembly and in violation of the Section 170 of the Local Governance Act 2016, (Act 936).
Section 170 of the Local Governance Act 2016, (Act 936) state that ‘A district assembly may incur any expenditure necessary for or incidentals to the carrying of a function conferred on the District Assembly under this Act, or by the instrument which established the District Assembly, but the expenditure shall be included in the approved budget of the District Assembly for the relevant year’.
The said expenditure according to the 2020 Auditor General Report on the use of the District Assemblies Common Fund was used by the Wa Municipal Assembly on recurrent and capital expenditures involving 30 separate Payment Vouchers totaling 329,117.26 Ghana Cedis
Management of the Wa Municipal Assembly in their response to the Auditor General said, ‘the unbudgeted expenditure was under exigency, henced, the lapse’.
According to the Auditor General, such spending acts by the Wa Municipal Assembly without recourse to the approved budget could adversely affect the implantation of approved programs of the Assembly.
The Auditor General has therefore called on District Coordinating Directors and Finance Officers to incur expenditures within the approved budget to avoid non implementation of planned activities of the Assemblies.
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