Govt accounts to open: Ngangan

By LUKE KAMA
GOVERNMENT accounts will open today for the 2018 fiscal year, according to Finance Secretary Dr Ken Ngangan.
He told The National yesterday that the accounts were scheduled to open at 10am for normal government transactions to take place.
The 2017 accounts closed at midnight on Dec 11 for the Christmas break.
“The formal announcement will be made tomorrow (today),” Ngangan said.
He said earlier that the opening of Government accounts usually took place in February. But the Government had undertaken some reforms in recent years to have it opened early in January.
The secretary said this was to make funds available to agencies of Government early in the New Year to enhance a smooth flow of goods and services to the people.
Ngangan last month warned people who had government cheques to cash them or have them deposited into their bank accounts before Dec 31.
Failure to do that would mean returning the cheques to the issuing agencies this year to have them cleared.
“Any 2017 cheques presented in 2018 will be referred back to the issuing agencies for clearances in 2018 by commercial banks,” he said.
Ngangan warned public servants that anyone abusing the system would be dealt with accordingly.