Thursday, February 9, 2012

Doing voodoo maths on bank payments

Let’s just cut to the chase here. Voodoo has set in. Where? Into calculations of money disbursed from the Consolidated Fund, the account that belongs to us all – into which cocoa money, gold money, oil money, tax money, loan money, gift/grant money and everything-that-comes-in money is deposited. And…..from which expenditure for road money, salary money, hospital money, education money, public toilet money, poverty alleviation (sorry, poverty reduction!) money, thievery money and everything-that-goes-out money is withdrawn.
Specifically, why is it that there is no agreement on the amount of money paid out to Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome? Three different figures have been bandied around. In fairness to the children of Ghana, we the adults of Ghana must get the maths right because our irresponsible debts have repercussions for future generations. If they can’t get the Woyome figures right, how then can we trust other figures from the Auditor-General, Accountant-General, Ministry of Finance and other stewards of our national purse?
The Maths Discrepancies:
Here are the different figures that have been tossed around – in a chronological order of information release. At the story’s breaking in the 2010 Auditor-General’s report, the amount was pegged at a dizzying GH¢58,905,974.13. Then, the opposition NPP joined the high-drama dance of calculations and miscalculations in the midst of denials, and came up with a mind-boggling grand total of GHc92 million. According to them, the 58 million was paid out in 2010. Then, as recently as 2011, another 34 million was paid as judgement debt top-up, bringing the total to 92 million. Fair enough!

Oh, not so fast! The NPP figure was too obscene so on Thursday, 12th January, 2012, Auditor-General Richard Q Quartey carelessly stepped into the delicate calculus fray to do a classic flip-flop voodoo-like maths and released new figures. To accomplish this feat, he literally entered his magic calculator toolbox and exclaimed, “Oops!” – not to Parliament as the 1992 Constitution instructs, but to the mass media! In a press statement, the Office of the Auditor-General maintained that only one payment of GH¢17,094,493.54 was paid to Mr Woyome in 2010 and not GH¢58,905,974.13. That was an awkward press statement. Was that meant to confuse or to clarify? It did the former.

In the midst of the confusion, the President Mills’ EOCO probe came up with what is the most recent figure of GHc51 million. That figure seems to be settling in now and with that, not much reference is being made to erstwhile 17 million, 58 million and 92 million. It’s so confusing.

Enduring Question: Was the total amount paid out to Mr Woyome 17, 58 or 51 – millions, that is! We The People of Ghana at this point must be told, without any more game-playing, exactly how much was paid. Why is the mathematics so difficult? For instance, does the Auditor-General disagree with the EOCO’s maths after he has clearly disagreed with himself and his own original calculations? Hmm!
The folks at the Ministry of Finance, especially Dr Kwabena Duffuor should by now come out to inform Ghanaians of the total money he released from the Consolidated Fund to Mr Woyome. His two able deputies – ahh, principally, the outspoken feisty Fiifi Kwettey should have released this simple information by now! That act will clear this ridiculous mathematics discrepancy at the marketplace.
Taflatse ten times, what is so difficult and complicated about doing a simple subtraction of hard cash from our Consolidate Fund? If this simple mathematics cannot be done, then it bears testimony to suspicions that the coffers of Ghana are being managed in a chaotic manner.

A Modest Proposal: Ghana Income and Expenditure Clock
I’ve a bank account with UniBank on which I’ve signed up for e-banking services. With that, the slightest activity in my account instantly triggers a statement on my mobile phone and email --simultaneously. Here is one such statement I received last week: “Debit Alert! GHC1.00 has been debited to your Account No:…on 31/1/2012. Detail: ATM Maintenance Fee. Balance: GHC…” We could adopt this model for the shareholders of the Consolidated Fund – the people of Ghana.

Another model to consider is the USA National Debt Clock. It is a clock-like devise that ticks as the debt increases or decreases. At any moment in time (to the second or minute or hour), a citizen can check on the debt status. As I write this article, on Wednesday January 8, 2012 at 05:00:05 PM GMT, the outstanding public debt stood at $15,345,007,978,608.32. For a bonus, accompanying the information on national debt is that of the estimated population and how much of the debt is the share of each citizen.

So with the estimated US population at the time I checked the debt clock, each citizen’s debt burden stood at $49,153.07. For planning purposes, this is as precise as can be. And citizens who are concerned at this ridiculous debt burden are encouraged to tell Congress or the White House.

The US Debt Clock presents a reality check for the citizenry. It is displayed in public, ‘fiili-fiilii’ for everyone to see. It doesn’t need privileged official guestimates (guess plus estimates) or voodoo maths to vomit it out through a probe instituted on a rush by President Obama in a crisis situation when all that can go wrong will go wrong (Murphy’s Law) and when one figure has no resemblance to figures presented by other government agencies. The US National Debt Clock is the practice of transparency at its best!

Since in our own sticky matter, we can’t do simple maths on what goes in and out, we could adopt a version of this clock and call it something like the Ghana Income and Expenditure Clock. It should be placed in all regional and district capitals and at places where we can all see (fiili-fiili), day and night, rain or shine. The clock must be powered by solar energy since we can’t rely on electricity or batteries! You know how we do! Ha!

But as back-up, whenever an amount of say one million gargantuan Ghana cedis (the new one; forget about the old because that is history!) is withdrawn or deposited, the information should instantly be texted to the cell phones of all of us (after all, mobile phone penetration continues to increase to super-high proportions with everybody and their mama and papa clutching on to a phone).

If we’re fools, we can decide to ignore the SMS alert. But since we’re a bunch of smart people, we could carry on conversations ‘in tro-tro’, chop-bars, ‘blue kiosks’, parties, churches, mosques, workplaces and wherever else we congregate to chit-chat. A typical conversation in a chop bar would go like this, “Eh, my brothers and sisters, last week alone, 20 million cedis was withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund oh!” “Charley, as for this one, it’s too much oh!” “We no go sit down! Walahi!”

With these two strategies combined (Ghana Income and Expenditure Clock and text messaging), We The People may be able to save our leaders (and trickster businessmen who want to do us harm) from themselves. Temptations are enhanced when you operate in the dark!
Postscript:
Apart from Mr Woyome, a mega-ton of money was paid to several others who might be jubillating over our obsession at the Woyome affair. See, Construction Pioneers must be salivating over their casino-like GHc70,071,704.99 judgement debt settlement, praying that Ghanaians will bury the stinky matter in the backyard of history. We’ll see!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Stories of technocrats amidst centralized rottenness

Stories of technocrats amidst centralized rottenness

Usually, people do things they know that they are not supposed to do because they can! Yes, the Obama 2008 “Yes you can” campaign message has a flip side. Yes, you can do things against the law, against the state, against the organization that employs you, and even against your own self just because you can!
This week, the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament began sitting on a report that has gotten lost amidst the other report in which a certain Alfred Agbesi Woyome is mentioned. This is the ‘Report of the Auditor-General on the public accounts of Ghana for the year ended 31 December 2010 on the Ministries, Departments and other Agencies (MDAs) of the central government’. You can find it on the website of the Ghana Audit Service at http://www.ghaudit.org/reports/MDA_S_2010.pdf.

If you have Internet access, the website of the Audit Service is a must place for you to visit periodically to read published reports. The way things go, we must all shine our eyes. Ignorance kills. Bible-inclined folks know that people who lack knowledge perish. We should not allow ourselves to perish. It is especially unpardonable for those of us who have the privilege of literacy not to remain vigilant and informed of documents in the public domain. If the information is hidden, we could be pardoned. But this information is just an internet click away.

How are technocrats keeping Ghana?
The more I study such reports, the more I’m tempted to think that the balance of power lies in the bosom of technocrats, not politicians. The technocrats provide the cushion and platform on which the politicians function. The scars the technocrats inflict on the finances of Ghana might be deeper than we care to know. The technocrats are the pen and paper pushers and implementers of policies. They are the advisors of government (if government feels like listening to them!). They are the keepers of the purse. They are the keepers of our history, records and of institutional memories. In effect, technocrats are the keepers of Ghana. How are our technocrats keeping Ghana?

In his transmittal letter to the Speaker of Parliament for this report, the Auditor-General Richard Q. Quartey, profoundly states: “Despite my previous comments regarding MDAs’ failure to comply with the Financial Administration Act with respect to the preparation and submission of financial statements, the problem still persists.” Wow! Is there a systemic failure?

The MDAs do not comply with the law because they can afford not to, with impudence. By this statement, the A-G is admitting that he doesn’t like this solid status quo; and especially, that it’s not good for Ghana. So whose fault is it that “the problem still persists?” In a concluding statement, he said, “I am not satisfied with the litany of financial irregularities which are exhibited yearly by MDAs. I therefore strongly recommend that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning develops a code of ethic for the Public Service to ensure proper, effective and efficient use of the funds.”

Meet one of such technocrats in the A-G’s 2010 report:  “An audit disclosed that between October 2008 and June 2010, the Volta Regional Director of the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, Mr Christian Sekyi, misappropriated GH¢542,919.00 being unclaimed salaries and pensions which should have been transferred into the Consolidated Fund. We recommended the prosecution of the interdicted officer for the recovery of the amount.” So he, one individual, a keeper of Ghana’s purse, could with audacity misappropriate half-a-million-plus Ghana cedis? When will he be prosecuted? Are such technocrats the centre of gravity of Ghana’s (under)development?

You would expect that such reports would become game changers and put the fear of God in people. But no! Ideally, these reports must be seen as gifts to Ghana, to throw the searchlight on our dark corners, name and shame, and to straighten the crooked. These reports, treated properly, would become the equivalence of national tongue-lashing.

The Ministry of Health’s financial rottenness:
Today, I will throw the searchlight on some disturbing stories in this aforementioned report to highlight the state of rottenness in the Ministry of Health. Without good health, we’re nothing. Yet, our lousy health care delivery system remains a death trap. Woe unto you if you get sick! Frightening! The Ministry of Health is being bled. The extent of wastage that is allowed to occur is heart-breaking and unconscionable against the backdrop of the reality of our low-cost health care delivery system.

So here are a few stories from health-land itself – the Ministry of Health. The total amount of money lost to Ghana in the following seven stories is GHc821,269. And there are many more of such stories.
“Due to inaction demonstrated by management and the Capital Investment and Management Unit, the Ministry stands the risk of losing GH¢46,200 being an amount paid to F.F. Construction Limited in March 2006, for the purchase and maintenance of a vehicle which was not delivered. We recommended that F.F. Construction Limited should refund the amount.” Oh, so due to lousy management, GH¢46,200 has been on the verge of being lost to a private company since 2006? If this money had belonged to an individual, would he/she allow it to be lost? Ah, the state of Ghana is no person’s uncle, mother, father, husband, wife or child!

“Failure of the management of six health institutions to take effective steps to stop payments led to the payment of unearned salaries totalling GH¢103,201. We recommended recovery of the illegal payments and the prompt deletion of the names of the staff involved from the payroll.” Who in their right business mind will pay salaries to people who have not worked? Answer: only those who do not care and/or out to destroy!

“Misappropriation of revenue totalled GH¢419,472. This condition was attributed to lack of supervision by the responsible authorities. We advised that the culprits should be made to refund the amounts and the Head of institutions involved should improve upon their supervision over the accounts department and also pursue the criminal aspects of the matter.” Who hired and keeps these lousy supervisors in their positions? If they’re non-performers, why are they allowed to stay to continue sabotaging our health care system?

“Unacquitted payments totalled GH¢46,135. The lapse was attributed to lack of supervision by management and could lead to misappropriation of funds.” There we go again with ‘lack of supervision’! Could it be that these people need supervisory skills training, or they’re just not trainable?

“Outstanding debtors which amounted to GH¢123,745 included unrecovered staff advances of GH¢42,254 and GH¢81,491 being non-payment of bills by patients. We advised the authorities to closely monitor the debts and recover the amounts involved.” Clearly, such a situation might not arise in a private hospital!

“Payments vouchers with a face value of GH¢82,516 were not presented for examination due to inadequate control over disbursements.” There we go again! GHc82,516 is allowed to get lost owing to ‘idontcarism’!

Any business that is mismanaged in the scenarios above will go bankrupt. No private hospital in Ghana can dare to be managed this way. Our health services will continue to deteriorate and our hospitals will remain death traps if this state of ‘idontcarism’ mismanagement is allowed to continue.

dorisdartey@gmail.com