Out of a total of GHc99 million spent on loans and projects, Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) in 2019, disbursed GHc92.5 million to 74,334 micro loans beneficiaries, the Finance Committee in Parliament has presented in its report on the budget performance of the Office of Government Machinery.
The report also stated that MASLOC’s loan recovery rate for the period, averages 55% a decline from 64% in 2017.
In his submission on the floor of the House, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu expressed worry at the decline, saying that the situation is unacceptable, and must be checked.
“In 2016, the information that came out was that the rate of loan recovery was less than 40 percent, it climbed up to 64 percent in 2017 and that was commendable, and I thought that between 2017 and 2019, it will still be rising up, but unfortunately, the rate of recovery has taken a tumble,” he said.
He added that even though the 2019 figure may be considered as an improvement from that of 2016, “ it is not the best and MASLOC need to up their game to improve the rate of loan recovery, because if you are not able to retrieve loans advanced, people in the queue cannot benefit.”
The Committee therefore recommended that management of the Centre put in place mechanisms to improve its loan recovery rate.
The purpose of the report is to comply with Section 27 of Act 921 which provides that each Principal Account Holder shall, within the first quarter of the ensuing year after the Minister submits the annual budget to Parliament, submit to Parliament, a performance report on the budget implementation for the proceeding financial year.
The Budget Performance Report in respect of the Office of Government Machinery, under which MASLOC falls, for the period January to December, 2019 was first presented to Parliament on the 30th of April, 2020 pursuant to Section 27 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
The report was then referred to the Finance Committee for consideration and report , after which the Committee met and considered the report with the relevant stakeholders.
Some challenges faced with the Office with the year under review, that the Committee noted, include inadequate budgetary allocation, arbitrary release of budgetary allocation, and inadequate capacity of key implementers, all of what has adversely impacted the ability of the Office to effectively execute its programmes as approved by Parliament.
