The Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands now has a Strategic Plan

By Iddi Yire

Accra, July 19, GNA – Mrs Maame Ama Edumadze-Acquah, the Administrator of Stool Lands, has informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament that the office now has a Strategic Plan.

The Strategic Plan spans the period 2023 to 2027.

The Administrator made the revelation at the Public Hearing of PAC in Accra, when she appeared to respond to issues raised in the 2021 report of the Auditor-General concerning the Office.

A section of the report indicated that The OASL was working with an expired Strategic Plan.

Mrs Edumadze-Acquah said copies of the Strategic Plan had been given to the Auditors.

The report indicated that The Office had still not disbursed GHC21,897,680.03 to its various stakeholders and still had in its possession 2019 and 2020 monies, which had not been disbursed.

Mrs Mrs Edumadze-Acquah told the Committee that The Office did not agree with the figures put out by the Auditors adding that the Auditors took the opening balance and added what they saw; declaring that “so, it was actually higher than what was in the ledgers”.

She said the disbursements were done twice in a year and that what was captured in the books had been disbursed.

She reiterated that The Office did dispute the amount as captured in the audit adding the Office disbursed the money as soon as they got it but where there was conflict in some traditional councils, they could not disburse the money.

Mrs Edumadze-Acquah said the monies had been disbursed to the concern regions; namely Ashanti, Central, Eastern and Greater Accra Regions.

“In Ashanti Region, there were conflicts and so the Traditional Council asked us not to disburse, the same way with the Central Region.” She said.

“In the Eastern Region we have gone ahead and invested the money on their behalf, because they instructed us and the Attorney-General gave us the permission.”

She said in the Greater Accra, the concerned traditional councils collected the revenue from the mining companies – “that is the rent concession, that is the first rent to be disbursed and at the time of the audit they had collected the money ready for disbursement”.

She reiterated that the disbursement was done normally in January and in July, so all the money had been disbursed.

The Auditors at the PAC sitting in their response said per the records available to them, a look at the Ashanti Region they could confirm that GHC798,051.00 was disbursed between April 2022 and March 2023.

For the Central Region, the Auditors told the Committee that they could also confirm that an amount of GHC305,390.39 was disbursed between 13th January 2021 to 2nd July 2021.

They said in the Eastern Region, Management of The Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands through the advice of the Attorney-General and with the approval of the Akyem Kotoku Traditional Council invested an amount of GHS 5million in Treasury Bills on behalf of the Council at the Coupon Rate of 14.40 per cent per annum.

Concerning Greater Accra, the Auditors said they would have to get back to the Committee.

Mrs Edumadze-Acquah said there was the need for an Amendment of the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands Act to empower the Office to invest the money on behalf of traditional councils that were facing conflicts.

In attendance at the PAC sitting were Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and Professor Patrick K. Abesinyale, Chief Director of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.

GNA

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