The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC) has referred the management of the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies to the Attorney General for prosecution.
This action follows allegations of procurement breaches totalling approximately 2 million Ghana cedis.
According to the Auditor General’s report, SD Dombo University allegedly engaged several companies that lacked the necessary qualifications for contract awards.
Speaking during the PAC proceedings, Sam George, MP for Ningo-Prampram, described the actions by the university as “sloppiness”.
“The auditors said you awarded the contract, for example, Latest Foam, you awarded a six hundred thousand Ghana cedis contract to them. There’s no tax clearance certificate, and no VAT documents from Latest Foam, no PPA, no business registration. No registrar certificate, I mean to award basic contracts to your company, you must attach all these documents to the invoice.
“This is not about them expiring, this is the fact that all these contracts were awarded, this smacks of sloppiness.”
In response, the Director of Finance of SD Dombo University, Suglo Abdulai, blamed the auditors for failing to certify their documents.
“Hon. Chairman these documents were there, they went to entity tender. The problem is that when the auditors come for observations, we usually, make the documents available for them to certify.
“They never came back, they didn’t come to certify. Before we realised, we were invited. The documents are available for verification. Like the companies you are mentioning, Latest Foam, they’re all viable companies. We have a thorough procurement process.”
Giving his directive, the Chairman of PAC, James Klutse Avedzi, said, “Based on that, we’re going to refer you to the Attorney General for prosecution. You can go and make the arguments in court. Clerk take note, SD Dombo University referred to the Attorney General for procurement breach.”
By: Nii Ayikwei Okai
