Sixteen (16) Pre-University schools (comprising senior high schools and colleges of education) in the Upper West of Ghana are heavily indebted to Northern Electricity Department of the Volta River (NEDCO) in unpaid electricity bills.
According to the 2020 Auditor -General report on Pre-Universities in the Upper West Region, the sixteen schools accumulated a total of Two million, Nine Hundred and Eighteen Thousand, Six Hundred and Ninety Ghana Cedis, Twenty Four Pesewas (GH 2, 918.690.24) as at 31st December, 2020.
Regulation 78 of the Public Financial Management Regulation, 2019 (L.12378) states that , a principal spending officer of a covered entity is personally responsible for ensuring in respect of each payment of the covered entity , that there is a sufficient unspent amount of appropriation for making the payment .
In reference to the PFMR above, it’s obvious that management of the 16 schools contravened the PFMR for consuming electricity without making the necessary monetary provision for those utility services rendered to them by NEDCO.
Wa Senior High School topped the list of schools with high electricity debt .They owed a tune of GH₡ 642,026.21 followed by Nustrat Jahan Ahmadiya College of Education with electricity arrears amounting to GH₡ 500,050.23 as at 31st December, 2020.
The management of the various affected institutions answering to the Auditor- General query explained that their reasons for their indebtedness to NEDCO is due to inadequate funds in their respective schools.
But one will wonder why an affected institution like NJA college of Education will complain of inadequate funds when it was able to dole out GH₡ 54,560 to its 16 member council members as sitting allowance in the same year and it failure to recover over GH₡ 246,505.16 from two contractors it made advance payments to when they were undertaking some projects in the school in 2020.
The Auditor General in its 2020 report therefore recommended to the 16 affected schools to make arrangements to settle their indebtedness to the utility provider to avoid them disconnecting power supply to the affected schools, since that will have a dire consequences on the schools activities.