Public accounts open

By LUKE KAMA
GOVERNMENT accounts for 2019 are now open, with the Treasury Department to start issuing warrants from today, according to Finance Secretary Dr Ken Ngangan.
He said warrants for important government programmes such as tuition fee-free funds, health, education, service improvement programme funds for districts and provinces, and Government agencies and departments would be released by Treasury from today.
“Jan 14 (yesterday) is the most suitable and appropriate time to open government accounts,” he said.
The Government had closed all government accounts on Dec 14, and to be re-opened for the 2019 fiscal year on Jan 7, which was last Monday.
But Dr Ngangan said yesterday that it had to be put back by one week because “some technical officers from the Finance Department are slowly making their way back to office from the Christmas break”.
“We gave time for them to come back last week. In fact, Jan 7 is too early to start because everyone is still in holiday mood and are slowly making their way back.”
Schools start classes on Jan 28. School managers will be expecting their allocations of TFF funds to be in their bank accounts by then.
Dr Ngangan said they successfully closed off the 2018 accounts and opened the 2019 accounts early in the year so everyone could get back to work and funds “are available for operations straightaway”.
He said recently that all financial commitments for 2018, including the service improvement programme funds to districts, had been paid.
He also had warned last month that all cheques drawn in the 2018 financial year for all public and statutory bodies should be presented to the banks before Dec 31.
“No 2018 cheque will be accepted by the banks in 2019. All will be referred back to the issuing public or statutory body.” Ngangan said where suppliers had delivered goods and services after Dec 14, invoices should be submitted as soon as the goods and service were delivered to ensure payment in 2018.