Managing financial records for accountability in metropolitan assemblies in Ghana

Abstract

The study sought to find out the implications of managing financial records in three metropolitan assemblies in Ghana with the aim of finding out how the effective and efficient management of financial records can affect accountability. The study was guided by the records life cycle and the records continuum principles. A concurrent mixed method was adopted as the design for the study. The total population of the study was 68. Data used for the analysis were obtained from respondents with the use of questionnaires, interviews and observations. The key finding of the study was that, even though the metropolitan assemblies had laws mandating the proper management of financial records, these laws did not indicate how the records should be managed. Thus, amongst other recommendations, the researcher recommends that the laws governing records management be revisited and amended to clearly describe how the financial records in the metropolitan assemblies should be managed. Finally, the study was limited to metropolitan assemblies in only three out of the six metropolitan assemblies in Ghana and as such the findings of this study may not be generalised to all metropolitan assemblies in Ghana.