Administrator-General Office to deploy asset management software

Officials of the Office of the Administrator-General (OAG), Presidential Estate Unit, say the unit is making arrangements to acquire asset management software to enable it to capture all procurements undertaken by the government.

According to the Administrator General, Mr David Yaro, the move was to help reduce the numerous challenges encountered in providing adequate data during Presidential transition processes.

“Consultations have been held with officials of the Comptroller and Accountant-General’s Department to get the OAG hooked onto the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS),” he said.

“This will enable an automatic capture of all procurements carried out by all the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), regional coordinating councils (RCCs) and metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) operating under the platform,” he added.

Workshop

Mr Yaro was speaking at a workshop held last Wednesday for 35 assets managers from various ministries and some selected departments and agencies to train them on ways of creating a credible records system.

He advised the MDAs that were not on GIFMIS to get themselves registered with the platform before the end of the year.

He said when that was done it would allow them to build a comprehensive database on government assets and property.

Purpose

The workshop was to equip the participants with the requisite knowledge on ways of producing a credible database.

The participants were taken through preparation of a Functional Assets Register; preparation of data on state properties and assets and disposal of state assets and properties.

Challenges

Mr Yaro said a review conducted after the transition period identified gaps in the performance of the OAG, which included the lack of a comprehensive inventory of state assets and limited resources of the Presidential Estate Unit.

“These challenges, when tackled, will solve misappropriation of state assets and also allow the OAG to carry out its statutory functions smoothly,” he said,

Measures adopted

He stated further that the OAG had adopted measures to ensure that such challenges were reduced come January 2021 and added that a request had been sent to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to furnish the OAG with quarterly returns on registration of new government vehicles.

Furthermore, he said a request had been sent to the Ministry of Finance to provide the OAG with copies of approvals granted to MDAs, RCCs and MMDAs to procure state assets and properties.

Civil service

The Head of the Civil Service Training Centre, Nana Kwasi Agyekum Dwamena, said his outfit was ready to collaborate with the relevant state institutions for smooth and safe political changeover.

He called on all estate managers with the ministries and agencies to help build a credible database.