FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE, KATSINA

FINANCE AND ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT

THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR, 3rd February,

2021
FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE KATSINA.

Dear Sir.
PROCUREMENT AND PROCEEDS OF OXYGEN
Please based on the current happenings with regards to the issue
of procurement, consumption and proceeds of oxygen, there is
the need for review to ensure harmonization with the general
revolving funds practice.
Currently, oxygen is being purchased by the Theatre revolving
fund while proceeds are being paid into the Patient Care
revolving fund account with Theatre being one the major
consumers of the product. This arrangement is contrary to what
obtains with the other revolving funds where proceeds are paid
into the coffers of the procuring revolving fund account.
In view of the above, the Management is invited to consider
either for Theatre to continue with the procurement and then the
E-Health department be directed to channel all payments for
oxygen consumption into the Theatre revolving fund account or
the Patient Care revolving fund account continues to receive the
proceeds for oxygen consumption and its procurement be shifted
to it henceforth. However, the first option seems much better as
oxygen is more aligned to Theatre/Anesthesia services and it is
expected that cost of oxygen will be factored in their operation
charges. They also have the expertise for its effective handling
and administration.

Thank you.
ABDULHADI S. DARMA
M. Y. BUBA
HEAD OF DEPARTMENT

FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE, KATSINA

MEDICAL RETAINERSHIP UNIT
TO………………………………………….. DATE……………………………
……………………………………………….
……………………………………………….
Dear Sir.
MEDICAL RETAINERSHIP STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT FOR THE
PERIOD ……………………………………………………………………………..

Please find below the current financial position regarding your

Medical Retainership Account with the Centre:
Balance as at……………………………….. N………………………
Deposit received during the period: N………………………

Services rendered during the period: N………………………

Current balance as at:……………………. N………………………

Find attached the breakdown of services rendered for your

perusal.
You are requested to pay the outstanding amount against you
to enable us serve you better. All payments are to be made in
favour of FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE KATSINA -TSA Account No.
0170110661013, Code: 1000044.
Thank you.
Medical Retainership Accountant
For: Medical Director.
FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE, KATSINA
FINANCE AND ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT

CERTIFICATE OF CASH COUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST

DECEMBER 2020

UNIT……………………………………………
DENOMINATIONS:
N 1000
N 500
N 200
N 100
N 50
N 20
N 10
N5
TOTAL

AMOUNT IN WORDS: ………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

CASH/IMPREST HOLDER:
NAME…………………………………………. SIGN……………………………. DATE……………………….

INTERNAL AUDITOR:
NAME……………………………………………. SIGN…………………………. DATE……………………….

EXTERNAL AUDITOR:
NAME……………………………………………. SIGN…………………………. DATE……………………….

STOCK TAKING INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE 2020 END OF YEAR

STOCKTAKING/CASH COUNT EXERCISE

The following are the instructions relating to the 2020 End of the year Stocktaking
and Cash Count Exercise taking place on Thursday 31st December 2020 and Friday
1st January, 2021.

1. All participants are expected to arrive for the exercise at 8:00am each day
and sign an attendance register on arrival.

2. The External Auditors, Internal Auditors, Accounts Staff, Store Officers and
the Managers of DRF Unit must be present for the exercise.

3. There should be an automatic stoppage of flow of goods in and out of the

stores from midnight of Wednesday 30th December, 2020 to facilitate the
count.

4. The counted stock must be properly labeled as counted using things like
masking tape, marker etc.

5. There should be standard stock sheets to enhance uniform valuation of the

different stock items and classification after the count.

6. The original stocktaking sheets must not be destroyed.

7. Stock report in respect of units having many locations should be clearly

identified and consolidated.

8. All stock taking sheets must be duly signed by the representatives of the
External Auditors, Internal Auditors, Account, Stores and User Departments
Immediately after the exercise.
9. The Store/User Departments are responsible for accurate costing and
classification of their stores and will be held accountable for any errors
thereof.

10.The Accounts Staff in various teams are responsible for the valuation and
casting of the stock sheets and their submission to the Accounts Coordinator.
All Accounts Staff are to note that they are responsible for the arithmetical
accuracy of the valuation and casting.

11. All the valued and casted stock sheets are to be returned to the Stores
Coordinator by respective accounts staff on or before 8th January, 2021.

12. The Stores Coordinator is to handover the stock sheets to the Accounts
Coordinator who produces the final summary which is to be jointly certified
by the representatives of the Stores, Audit and Account Departments as well
as the External Auditors.

13. Copies of the final stock sheets to be formally forwarded to the DRF
accounts and respective revolving Funds Managers.

14. All sales registers must be updated and balanced as at 31 st December, 2020
and presented during count on 1st January, 2020.

15. The Summary of the stocktaking and Cash Count exercise must be duly
certified and forwarded to the Management on or before 15th January, 2021.

Best regards,

ABUBAKAR A. MUSTAPHA
Ag. HOD FINANCE AND ACCOUNTS
FOR: MEDICAL DIRECTOR
 FINANCE AND ACCOUNT
DEPARTMENT
MAIN ACCOUNT UNIT
FMC KATSINA
10TH MARCH, 2021
THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR.
FMC KATSINA.

THROUGH:
HOD (ACCOUNTS)

Sir,

REQUEST FOR HONORARIUM

Please kindly not that two staff from Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital were in the
Centre during the week 22nd to 27th February, and guided our staff in the
preparation of the centre’s year 2020 Final accounts and other records. The officers
are Mr. Okolo O. E (Asst. Director) and Malam Ahmed Suleiman (Chief
Accountant).

An honorarium of one hundred thousand (N100,000) each is recommended in their

favour. Kindly consider and direct further.

SIRAJO I. ALBABA
HEAD OF UNIT
FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE, KATSINA
FINANCE AND ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT
THE MEDICAL DIRECTORE, 22nd March,
2021
FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE,
KATSINA STATE.
Sir.

RE: SUBMMISION OF REPORT

1. INTRODUCTION

Please kindly recall that on my engagement to render advisory services on the

organization/operational structure of the accounts department, a report was
presented to the management after studying the system on ground and measures
aimed at improving the system were recommended. The Management consented to
the implementation of those measures which has been going on since then.
Having spent about a year since the commencement of the reforms and the
restructuring, it is desirable to review and assess the impact of the changes with a
view to identifying and addressing the challenges faced in order to consolidate on
the successes recorded.

2. STAFFING AND ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

As far as the department is concerned, the staffing issue has been fully addressed
with the reporting of the newly recruited staff in early 2020. This resulted in
increased performance and efficiency as well as timely presentation of reports
more especially the monthly DRF report that are reviewed during the monthly
DRF meetings and the monthly stock taking reports which is a significant input in
the preparation of the monthly revolving funds accounts. However, as most of the
new staff didn’t have any earlier working experience, there is need for them to
have proper coaching, orientation and closely supervised to enhance their technical
knowledge in the area and ensure that they don’t derail.

With regards to the organizational structure, the department has so far been
operating with seven units as follows:

I. Budget and Expenditure Control

II. Revenue and Revolving Funds
III. Payroll
IV. Main Accounts
V. NHIS
VI. Retainership
VII. Checking and Monitoring

Base on identified challenges it is proposed that the department’s organizational

structure be modified into the following units:

a. Budget and Expenditure Control

b. Revolving Funds
c. Revenue
d. Payroll
e. Final Accounts
f. Treasury
g. NHIS
h. Retainership
i. Checking and Monitoring
j. Specials Duties

This proposed structure is aimed at improving the level of supervision and focus.

3. REVENUE COLLECTION AND ACCOUNTING SYSTEM

The Centre is doing well in the area of revenue collection and accounting. The
robust software employed ensures that no service is formally rendered without
making the necessary payment and it makes it difficult to suppress payments made
through the system. The operational changes introduced have significantly
improved the handling, supervision and reporting aspects of this function in
addition to enhanced control and accountability as a result of strong internal checks
mechanism built into the system. But still there is room for improvement. For
example, in some instances lodgments are not made on daily basis, collections are
not always retired at the end of each shift and periodic reconciliation of collections
with service centres is not formally instituted.

It is in view of the importance of the revenue functions and the need for very close
supervision that an independent unit to oversee it is being proposed with clear
focus on revenue collection accounting and reporting.

4. TREASURY SINGLE ACCOUNT (TSA) OPERATION

In this area, the status remained the same with only one TSA Account in operation.
However, progress has been made towards the acquisition of additional accounts
from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF). Formal
request was made and receiving appropriate attention. Management may therefore
wish to follow up to get the two additional accounts promised.

5. REVOLVING FUNDS OPERATIONS

This is a success story. Management has constituted fifteen (15) revolving funds
including NHIS and Retainership during the year 2020. This increased the level of
efficiency in the general operations of the service centres with the departments
becoming more conscious of their performance and spending. There has been a
significant improvement in the attitudinal approach towards service delivery across
the centres. The departments are developing more interest in monitoring the level
of their income as well as the nature of their expenses.

A very significant observation noted during the first year is that while all the
revenues accruing to the various revolving funds are fully credited to them, some
of the general expenses that have direct relationship with their activities are not
apportioned to them which is necessary to determine the true and fair level of their
performance. For example, all general expenses that are not funded/provided for in
the budget may henceforth be apportioned to the revolving funds to match with the
income they generate in arriving at the net results of their operation. Appropriate
criteria may be developed for the sharing. The accountants handling the revolving
funds have been trying but they need proper tutorship for them to grasp all the
technicalities of accounts preparation and maintenance including identifying the
various sources of records required.

As a way forward, all the stakeholders right from the Management down to the
individual staff are enjoined to step up efforts to make the revolving funds very
viable so as to achieve the desired result of ensuring continuous availability of
affordable and first class services to the citizenry.

6. SALARY ADMINISTRATION

Some successes have been recorded over the last one year in the area of salary and
payroll administration both under the IPPIS and the Non regular. With regards to
the IPPIS payroll the access rights of the head of the payroll unit have been
activated which enabled him to effectively perform all the roles of the accounts
department. This enhanced the checks and balances as well as efficiency in the
system. On the non-regular payroll which used to be run on excel, an appropriate
software was deployed for it which significantly addressed most of the issues
surrounding its preparation and payment.

Despite the above there is still room for improvement. For example, the
responsibilities of all the role players under both the IPPIS and Non regular have to
be clearly defined and strictly adhered to without any encroachment whatsoever.
This provide the bedrock for accountability and efficiency. Appropriate measures
should be designed for timely reporting of staff exit, abscondment and financially
related disciplinary actions to the payroll unit for necessary actions. All these are to
ensure that only bonafide staff that worked are paid.

7. PAYMENT PROCESSING

In the area of funds disbursement, we are still having a lot of challenges and this is
a serious cause for concern in view of its sensitivity. Issues bothering on accuracy,
narration, classification, recoding/posting, filing of vouchers, missing vouchers and
other irregularities are very much with us. Most of these problems emanates right
from the point of raising payment vouchers and despite the multiple level of checks
along the line, they are not detected and rectified before the payments are
eventually effected. In some instances, payments are raised before the vouchers are
ready thereby bye-passing the relevant checks that would have likely revealed the
anomalies. There is also no proper expenditure/budgetary control in the system
with spendings in some cases not in line with approved budgets. This should be
seriously checked to avoid sanctions.

Therefore, in other to have a sound an ideal situation, there is the need to improve
in the supervisory and advisory roles of the relevant officers. The established level
of authority and the flow of operations should be strictly adhered to and that all
supervisory staff must ensure that all jobs performed by their subordinates are
carefully reviewed with all of observations addressed to logical conclusion. The
officers responsible for advising the management on financial matters should
endeavor to live up to expectation and always advise it against any action that goes
contrary to the rules and regulations.

8. NHIS AND RETAINERSHIP SERVICES

The operations of our NHIS and Retainership schemes have significantly improved
during the period with each of them being managed by an independent unit in the
accounts department. Their ability to capture/monitor all services rendered to their
clients, reconciling them with various service providers and settling same has been
good. However, the issue of pricing i.e. the rate at which the service centres will be
charging the NHIS and Retainership is still on. A categorical policy stands on the
this is required for uniformity and harmony.

9. PURCHASE/CASH ADVANCES

The issue of cash advances in the public sector is very sensitive and the financial
regulations have made adequate provisions for its treatment. Currently, we have
relevant advances records opened but the major problem is lack of proper
retirement and this has led us to having very huge amounts as unretired advances.
This easily attracts the attention of inspectors coming to the Centre and can lead to
sanctions as cash handling is involved through the advances. It should be noted
that the financial regulations have provided for recovery from the emoluments of
officers with long standing/unretired advances.
Therefore, for the sake of accountability, Management may wish to direct all
officers with unretired advances to retire them immediately and ensure timely
retirement of subsequent advances granted.

10.FIXED ASSETS REGISTER, OFFICE INVENTORY AND ASSET

NUMBERING

It has been observed that there is no standard/functional Fixed Assets Register.

The register is supposed to contain all fixed assets acquired and owned by the
Centre with all relevant information on the assets like date of acquisition, cost,
depreciation, net value and location. It monitors the existence and movement of all
assets in the Centre. Office assets inventory is not available in some of the offices
and that some of the assets are not numbered. Management needs to look into these
issues immediately and take appropriate actions to guard its assets against
unauthorized movements.

11. CONCLUTION

This report attempted to review the impact of the changes and reforms introduced
in the organizational and operational structure of the accounts department. It
identified the challenges in the system and appropriate recommendations have
been made towards consolidating on the achievements recorded and for further
improvement.

Thank you.

ABDULHADI S.
DARMA
 FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE, KATSINA
FINANCE AND ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT

THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR, 26th May,

2021
FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE, KATSINA.

REVIEW OF ROLE PLAYERS UNDER REMITA AND GIFMIS

PLATFORMS

Sir kindly recall the recent changes/staff movements involving Accounts and
Internal Audits department. As a result of this, there is need to review the role
players under the two payment platforms with a view to ensuring that only those
that are responsible for the functions are allowed to play the relevant roles. Those
that are no more involved in the process should be removed from the Centre’s
active role players in order to ensure accountability and avoid unauthorized access.

In view of the above, I wish to recommend that the comprehensive list of all the
role players be produced and compare it with those that are CURRENTLY
responsible for the various responsibilities and harmonize it accordingly. This will
ensure that only those officers duly authorized are allowed access on the platforms.

Submitted for your consideration and necessary actions.

ABDULHADI S. DARMA