ASDP Basket Fund - Ministry Of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives

7 Accounting for expenditures7.5 Payments procedures for LGAs on the manual systemPrior to making payments to suppliers of goods and services, the Head of the PMU isrequired to match invoices submitted against LPOs. The Head in consultation withthe user department, establishes whether goods and services are deliveredsatisfactorily and thereafter authorises the invoices for payment by signing theinvoice. The invoice with supporting documents is then forwarded to the CouncilTreasurer. Thereafter the Treasurer prepares a payment voucher. All paymentvouchers must be authorised by the Council Director.It is important for both the Council Director and Council Treasurer to ensure that theprocedures set out in paragraph 2.5 of the Local Authority Accounting Manual areadhered to. Procedures include the following, that payment vouchers must:• Be serially numbered throughout the month, and the number recorded inthe cash book against the relevant entry• Contain an adequate explanation of the payment being made by theCouncil, giving references of payment orders etc• Be initialled by authorised persons when alterations are made• Be stamped with the word “paid” and the date of payment” when paymentis made.The Council Treasurer then writes a crossed cheque in favour of the supplier foramounts indicated on payment vouchers. Cheques are then signed by two authorisedsignatories. It is the responsibility of the Council Treasurer to ensure that all signedcheques are recorded in a despatch book. Suppliers are required to collect and signfor cheques.The Council Treasurer maintains cash books for the relevant sector account, and asubsidiary ledger for ASDP expenditure. It is his/her responsibility to ensure that entriesare posted as they occur so that the balance of the account can be ascertained at anytime with a reasonable degree of accuracy.Cheque details required for posting to the cash book should be extracted from chequecounterfoils. Further, cheque amounts posted to the cash book should be recorded instrict numerical order (including cancelled cheques).Government of the United Republic of Tanzania56