Vice-Chancellor for the Bolgatanga Technical University Prof. Samuel Erasmus Alnaa has stated categorically that the Auditor General erred in capturing figures of the school’s spending on procurement in 2019 by management.

According to the latest Auditor General‘s report, the Bolgatanga Technical University “has a one-man procurement unit responsible for all procurement activities. For the year 2019 the Polytechnic procured goods and services to the value of GH¢45,355,000.00 through the one-man unit”.

The report indicated that with the lack of qualified procurement personnel to man the unit “The situation has resulted in deploying accounts and budget officers to assist in the procurement process which in our view do not offer adequate control in procurement and payment process”.

But in an interview with Bolgatanga-based Dreamz FM on the findings in the Auditor General’s report, Vice-Chancellor for the Bolgatanga Technical University Prof. Samuel Erasmus Alnaa explained that the Auditor General erred in its report.

According to him, there were additional zeros which were not supposed to have been there hence ballooning the figure from GH¢ 45, 335.00 to GH¢45,355,000.00.

He explained that “There was a constriction on employment for some time now and so it was actually difficult for us to get the number of staff to represent the procurement directorate.  However, recently we have gotten clearance to recruit to do that, but the amount involved has been erroneously overstated. I think they just added another zero to it. The amount involved is Ghc 45, 335.00. It will even take ten years of our allocation but we will still not get 45 million cedis”.

Expressing his shock at the figure quoted  Prof. Samuel Erasmus Alnaa stressed that “can you imagine all the Technical Universities spending 48 million cedis and Bolgatanga Technical University alone spending 45 million cedis? That is too serious. Where are getting that money? Even if you add all our salaries and all others together including GETfund allocation, School fees and all; you won’t still get that 45 million cedis over even 5 years”, indicating that the attention of the AG has been drawn to the error.

Source: mynewsgh.com