The National Vocational Training Institute was unable to train some 5,000 trainees under the Youth in Trade and Vocation project even though it developed curriculum for it and also trained trainee trainers at a cost of more than half a million cedis, the 2021 report of the Auditor-General has revealed.

It said Section 13(e) of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584) states that the Auditor-General, shall examine in such manner as he thinks necessary, the public and other government accounts and shall ascertain whether in his opinion the programmes and activities have been undertaken with due regard to economy, efficiency and effectiveness in relation to the resources utilised and results achieved. 

“In this regard, an effective contract administration requires that projects are properly executed and within the dates specified in the proposal”, the report noted. 

It said: “Our review of the projects account (Donors) disclosed that the Institute received GH¢1,320,000.00 from Youth Employment Authority for the training of 5,000 trainees in all the 10 regions within 10 skill trade areas in 2016”. 

“We, however, noted that from 2016 to 2020, the management trained trainers and developed a curriculum for the programme at a total cost of GH¢560,835.90 but could not train the trainees who were the primary focus of the project”.

The A-G said the situation could be attributed to the inability of the managements of the Institute and Youth Employment Authority, “to raise the needed funds to ensure the execution of the proposed project on the scheduled date”.

“This practice, if not checked, could lead to an increase in the total cost of the project to completion”, the report warned. 

The A-G recommended to the anagement to ensure that Youth Employment Authority fulfils its part of the agreement by releasing the funds or NVTI uses the money released to train a number of the trainees on some of the trade areas. 

The report said the management “accepted our recommendation and indicated that the institute will liaise with the Youth Employment Authority to fulfil their part of the agreement or allow the Institute to train a number of the trainees on some of the trade areas with the remaining funds”. 

The Institute recorded a deficit of GH¢2,098,689.58 during the 2020 financial year. The position represented a 35.9% worsened performance over the previous year’s deficit of GH¢1,544,173.90.

Total revenue decreased by 10.6%, from GH¢34,928,611.24 in 2019 to GH¢31,234,027.61 in 2020. 

The downward movement, the report indicated, was due to a 29.8% decrease in internally generated funds from GH¢16,572,971.35 in 2019 to GH¢11,634,451.27 in 2020; and a 48% decrease in donor funding from GH¢ 2,311,074.71 in 2019 to GH¢1,202,801.95 in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, NVTI’s total expenditure went down by 8.6% from GH¢36,472,785.14 in 2019 to GH¢33,332,717.19 in 2020. 

This was due to a decrease in goods and services by 27.2%, from GH¢20,709,535.36 in 2019 to GH¢ 15,068,292.80 in 2020.

The report also said Non-Current Assets decreased by GH¢870,245.59 representing 3% from GH¢29,673,949.71 in 2019 to GH¢28,803,704.12 in 2020.

This was due to reduction in the acquisition of new assets, the report noted.

Also, it said current assets went down by 13.7% from GH¢5,858,835.89 in 2019 to GH¢5,058,726.93 in 2020, explaining: “The downward trend was because of decrease in cash deposit at bank” while current liabilities recorded an increase of 14.6% from GH¢1,913,374.38 in 2019 to GH¢2,191,797.04 in 2020. 

The liquidity position of NVTI, as measured by a current ratio of 2.3:1 in the 2020 financial year, indicates the ability of the Institute to meet its short-term debts when they fall due, the report added.