FPAC did the scrutiny on Wednesday 8 May 2024 after the Office of the Ombudsman appeared before the Committee for the presentation of their reports for the said years, on Monday 5 May 2024.
The auditors during the presentation made observations in the reports of the Ombudsman, which included utilised allocated land, payment without three quotations, and payment for website maintenance without an agreement.
The auditors observed that a review of payment vouchers revealed that a total of D23,575.00 was paid to NetPage in respect of upkeep and maintenance of the official website but no contract agreement was tendered for the deal to ascertain its terms and conditions.
The auditors added that without an agreement in place, they could not establish the terms and conditions of the service being rendered.
“Without a service level agreement, terms of the service may be difficult to enforce and quality service may not be delivered,” they said.
Responding to the auditors’ observation, the management of the Ombudsman said there was no contractual framework with Netpage in place, but they would work to have such a framework as soon as possible.
The auditors also stated that in the review of the payment vouchers, they noted that D123,068.25 had been raised without the request for three quotations as dictated by GPPA regulations.
They recommended that the management should ensure three quotations were obtained for the transactions within the threshold stipulated in the GPPA regulation.
Regarding the unavailable quotations for such transactions, the management also said, those cases were instances of “invoices getting missing” after payment processing.
“Going forward, management would ensure that GPPA regulations are strictly adhered to and voucher correctly filed to avoid cases of missing supporting documents,” the management stated.
The auditors said that from a review of a letter referenced SL/097/2003/(1) and dated 16 June 2003 from the Department of Lands and Survey, they also noted land measuring 37m by 30m was allocated to the Office of the Ombudsman.
In 2022, land premium of D11,100.00 was paid to the Department of Lands and Survey.
The auditors said that a review of the letter revealed that “an annual land rent is payable” with amount to be determined by the department of Lands.
“However, we were not provided with evidence and as well as rent calculation made by the department of Lands,” they said.
The Office of the Ombudsman was also required to develop the land within 2 years.
“However, during our visit of the land on 2 June 2023 we noted that the land was still not developed,” they told the committee.
The auditors recommended that the Ombudsman should engage with relevant authorities including the Ministry of Finance to ensure the utilisation of the land.
The management of the Ombudsman in their response told the committee that their office had on numerous occasions proposed budget to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, for the utilisation of the land, but funds were not forthcoming.
They assured the committee that they would endeavour to put in more effort to secure funding for the erection of a building on the land.
