The management of Derma Water System in the Bono East Region has confessed to backdating GH¢16,000 receipt it was supposed to have issued in 2019.

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee, officials of the water system said their suppliers backdated the receipt on February 1, 2023, to cover 2019 goods and services.

The Auditor General’s report said the management in 2020 failed to provide the necessary receipts and invoices for the payments of GH¢16,000 to suppliers when the auditors visited the facility at the Tano South municipal assembly.

Confessing their actions to PAC, the officials said, “we provided the receipts to auditors in the district on February 1, 2023. They are genuine receipts. It was yesterday that we attempted to submit to the audit service at the district. They didn’t take it, so we have copies here. We contacted our suppliers, so they backdated the receipts on February 1, 2023”.

They added that they usually have to chase suppliers for receipts hence the delay.

“Most of the suppliers within the enclave usually don’t have invoices and receipts. Usually, we try to educate them to get the necessary documents when we want to undertake an activity. At times, they get you the invoices, and when it’s time for payments they struggle with the receipts. What the managers normally do is advance payments to them and later pursue the receipts.

“This is the practice that is happening at Derma. As an assembly, we were not aware of this development until this issue came up. When the auditors came they had the invoices, but the issue was the receipts, and they confused the invoices to be receipts,” the officials stated.