'Institutional cars should be auctioned at reasonable prices' – Vitus Azeem

An anti-corruption crusader, Vitus Azeem, has commented on the acquisition of 19 auctioned vehicles by Judges of Ghana’s superior courts without approval from the minister of finance.

This comment follows reports of financial irregularities verdict on key ministries, departments and agencies in the 2021 Auditor-General’s report.

Instances of the irregularities include the acquisition of 19 vehicles by some judges of Ghana’s superior courts without approval from the minister of finance – an act which violates the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378).

The vehicles were auctioned by the judicial service at an amount of GHS1,023,507.96.

Regulation 158 (L.I. 2378) states that the Principal Spending Officer of a covered entity shall obtain the prior written approval of the Minister for the transfer, exchange, sale, donation, contribution-in-kind, trust and any other disposal of any vehicles of the covered entity.

In an interview with the host of Atinka FM’S AM Drive, Kaakyire Ofori Ayim, Vitus Azeem stated that even if cars will be auctioned, it should be pegged at reasonable prices.

According to him, a person should not be allowed to purchase two cars from the same institution.

“It is just a matter of the leadership taking a decision that from now onwards we are not going to allow this. Even if we are auctioning the cars to a person it should be at a reasonable price and one person should not be allowed to buy two cars from the same institution”, Vitus Azeem told Kaakyire Ofori Ayim.

Vitus Azeem expressed dissatisfaction in how a car pegged at GHS50,000 on the market can be sold at GHS7,000.

These infractions included tax irregularities which formed 91.5 per cent of the total financial infractions, key among which is a rescheduled debt of GHS402,804,572 owed by some 28 Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) who had failed to honour their default payment between January 2021 to December 2021.

The others centered on cash irregularities amounting to GHS45,763,607, which represented 4.23 percent of total irregularities; indebtedness/loans/advances, amounting to GHS30,758,576, also represented 2.8 per cent.

Payroll irregularities further amounted to GHS5,583,498; stores and procurement irregularities amounted to some GHS511,569; contract irregularities amounted to GHS1,559,424, among others.