The 2021 Auditor General’s Report has disclosed that documents of five divested enterprises by the Divestiture Implementation Committee cannot be found or missing.
The audit team noted several irregularities with regard to the reported sale of five divested enterprises.
These irregularities included the unavailability of documentation on the processes followed in conducting and concluding all these sales and the non-availability of certified liability reports.
“We recommended that the committee intensifies its efforts to find and file all missing documents and submit them for audit verification,” the report explained.
Again, the report found out that management was unable to provide the audit team with minutes of meetings requested to enable it carry out its review work.
“We urged management to redouble its efforts in obtaining copies of the minutes which were submitted to the Ghana Police Service and present them for audit verification”.
The review of divestiture debtors also disclosed that there were several issues including a list of debtor balances that did not agree with the nominal ledger balance and missing offer letters and sale and purchase agreements, rendering the completeness, accuracy, existence, and valuation of divestiture debtors in serious doubt.
“We recommended that the committee should among other things, take inventory of sale and purchase agreements for all state enterprises divested to establish a complete and accurate status of divestiture debtors and institute, an effective mechanism of debt recovery to recover all outstanding debts in a timely manner,” it added.
The report further pointed out that the committee was unable to provide the audit team with a list of divestiture liabilities, noting that the committee wrongfully recorded expenditures incurred and paid for other enterprises on the divestiture list but not yet divested, against the divestiture liabilities account.
It therefore recommended that the committee should obtain copies of certified liabilities reports of the enterprises divested from the consultants engaged.