Give us power to bite – Public Accounts Committee Tells Government

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has asked for biting teeth to punish persons indicted in audit reports for financial misappropriation.

This, the committee believes, would curtail the consistent finding of irregularities in the Auditor-General’s report annually, a situation that the chairman of the committee, James Klutse Avedzi, has described as disturbing.

According to him, the situation has continued to persist, because of the absence of stricter punishment being carried out against persons who commit these infractions.

“It is becoming worrying that issues that are reported over and over and recommendations that are made by the Auditor-General keep coming up. You can see clearly that most of them come to the committee to lie because their representations are not exactly what happens on the ground,” he said.

“These are the problems that we have. That is why we have been saying that the Public Accounts Committee should be given some more powers so that we will be able to take action against some of these people to serve as a deterrent to others,” he added.

Mr Avedzi said this during a media engagement on the sidelines of the committee’s sitting in Tamale on Monday, August 23.

The committee would be considering the 2017 report of the A-G for some public institutions in the Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East, and Upper West Regions.

The call by PAC comes amid a recent report by the A-G, which disclosed that irregularities committed by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) amounted to over GH₵12 billion.

He explained that currently, PAC could only make recommendations to the parliament and when the house approves our recommendations, it goes back to the various institutions cited for implementation of the recommendations.

The chairman of PAC then indicated that the lack of power to recommend either the prosecution or other stricter punishment has become grounds that make some public financial managers continue to commit irregularities.

“If we have the powers as the PAC and something of this nature happens, we can even recommend for that person to be locked up by the police,” he explained.

Going forward, he said, “we will be recommending in the report to Parliament to grant the Committee such powers. We are sure to come up with a Private Members Bill to grant such powers to the Committee.”

A Ranking Member on the committee, Kofi Okyere Agyekum, added that aside from sanctioning people who engaged in misappropriation and misapplication of state funds, it was important to ensure the recovery of such funds.

READ ALSO: GACC To Akufo-Addo: Act On Findings In AG’s Report

Following the disclosures by the A-G, the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) impressed on the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to act on key findings and take pragmatic steps to implement recommendations in the 2020 Auditor General’s report.

This is to save the country huge sums of money that it loses and curtail the number of irregularities committed by MDAs and MMDAs.

The coalition made this call when they visited the president on August 18, 2021.

Chairman of GACC, Nana Osei-Bonsu, cited the report and said the irregularities, which resulted in a sum of GH₵12,856,172,626, have continued to plague the nation’s finances and hindered the implementation of development projects.

He, therefore, urged the president to immediately institute measures to curtail the situation.

President Akufo-Addo pledges to act on Auditor General’s recommendations

President Akufo-Addo welcomed the suggestions and recommendations tabled by GACC. He noted that the Auditor General’s comprehensive report would be given the necessary attention it deserves.

The president observed that the circumstances leading to the exit of the former Auditor General, Daniel Domelevo, occasioned his decision to allow the current occupant of the office to remain in an acting capacity to settle in the space.

He added that his administration has initiated the process expected to lead to Akuamoah Asiedu’s confirmation as the substantive Auditor General soon.