An approaching unvalidated payment of GH14.7 million in Covid-19 spending has been requested, and the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) has been ordered to take quick action.
The government offered free water between April and December 2020 at the height of the coronavirus outbreak.
To settle the cost of water for 2020 and 2021, a total of GH22,819,862.42 was paid to a few non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and private water providers. The cost of free water provided by NGOs and private water providers was listed as GH37,609,791.71 on the bill, but the Auditor-General is raising concerns about it.
After making the aforementioned payment, there is still $14,789,929.29 owed to the vendors.
This was discovered during the Covid-19 transaction audit for the time frame of March 2020 to June 2022.
According to the Auditor General's analysis of the matter, "no real water bills created and submitted to the Agency by the NGOs and Private Individual Water suppliers to substantiate their claims" were found.
The institutions responsible for determining the quantity, according to the study, "used the maximum pumping capacity of the machines and the expected population of the localities concerned."
He wants explanations since he doesn't think this is a reliable way to gauge how much water was used during the specified time.
It advised that actual bills, not anticipated bills, be used to settle the 14 million yen in arrears.
In response, management defended the payments by saying that some of the private water suppliers had water metres that they used to create their own water bills based on water use, and that those bills were reviewed by the District Assemblies and CWSA Regional Offices.
The Community Water and Sanitation Agency asserted that failure to pay the amount will harm the Agency's relationship with the suppliers, which might result in litigation and harm to future operations using the suppliers' services.
The A-G claims, however, that "we did not see water bills presented to the headquarters by the NGOs and other private water service providers and consequently could not validate the information supplied by management."
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