Set up committee to probe irregularities in PAC report - Majority Leader urges Parliament
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has urged Parliament to set up a committee urgently to probe the GH¢17.48 billion worth of irregularities contained in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on the public accounts of public boards, corporations and other statutory institutions before the House adjourns on December 22.
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Mandate
He said the PAC was mandated to investigate the reports of the Auditor-General and present its findings to the House and the Constitution also mandated the House to constitute a committee.
Such committee, he said, must work with the Attorney-General’s Department to make sure that all the committee’s recommendations were carried out to help retrieve for the state money that were misappropriated.
“We must constitute the committee before the House rises,” he stated.
PAC report
He made the call when the Chairman of the PAC, Dr James Avedzi, presented the committee’s report on the Auditor-General on the public accounts of public boards, corporations and other statutory institutions for the period ending December 31, 2021.
The irregularities occurred in the management of 19 state institutions for the period ended December 31, 2021.
The report revealed that the total irregularities increased from GH¢12,856,172,626 in 2020 to GH¢17,483,483,539 in 2021, representing an increase of 36 per cent.
The report classified the irregularities under eight different headings, namely outstanding debtors/loans receivable (58.98 per cent, dues from customers for power sales — COVID-19 and others — (34.56 per cent), cash (2.89 per cent), payroll (0.05 per cent), procurement (1.75 per cent), tax (0.13 per cent) and contract irregularities (1.62 per cent).
The 19 state institutions and agencies that were cited for causing these irregularities were under the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General.
The others were the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation, Ministry of Tourism, Creative Arts and Culture, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.
The rest are the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Works and Housing, and Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources.
