Public Institutions Make GH¢20.5bn Irregularities Regular by Repeating Them Annually

ACCRA — Public institutions have regularised GH¢20.49 billion in financial irregularities after determining that anything repeated faithfully across successive audits can no longer be considered unusual.

The new classification follows the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition’s finding that public boards, corporations and statutory institutions increased their irregularities from GH¢8.8 billion to GH¢18.4 billion within one reporting year. Officials said the 109.3 per cent rise demonstrated sufficient consistency to move the transactions from “irregular” to “established administrative practice.” Cash, procurement, tax, payroll, contract and recoverable-loan irregularities will now receive permanent desks instead of appearing annually as surprised visitors.

Internal controls will remain in place to guide compliant transactions, while experienced irregularities continue using the routes they have successfully followed around them. Any institution recording a new irregularity only once must submit it for renewal next year before regular status can be granted.

GACC warned that controls were being circumvented without sufficient consequences. Public institutions have therefore promised to study the report carefully and reproduce the same findings more efficiently next year, ensuring that no irregularity suffers the embarrassment of appearing irregular merely because auditors have written it down again.

This is satire. The source story is real; the conclusions have been faithfully misinterpreted.