Month: June 2021

Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has pledged the support of the legislature to 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHS) and has called on all citizens to participate in the national exercise.

The Speaker, who was among the first personalities to be counted in the exercise on Monday morning, said the exercise is necessary for planning, budgeting and coordination of state response to the challenges facing the development of the country.

“The population and housing census is so critical to survival – quality of life – and the development of the country. I therefore call on every body to stand up and be counted,” he said.

Speaker Bagbin said Members of Parliament (MPs) would be deployed to their various constituencies to actively participate, mobilise, educate and sensitise their constituents on the ongoing exercise.

He noted that five post-independent censuses were conducted in the country in 1960, 1970, 1984, 2000 and 2010 with the last two consisting of both a population census and a housing census making the 2021 PHC the third Population and Housing Census to be conducted in the country.

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A delegation from the Ahmadiyya Mission has called on Speaker Bagbin at the Parliament House in Accra.

The delegation, led by its Amir and Overseer, had conversations with the Speaker and some MPs on maintaining peace in the face of religious diversity and growing youth unemployment.

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The Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon Alban. S. K Bagbin has expressed his support to calls for the creation of an institutional memory bank to help enhance the transfer of knowledge in the public service.

He said there is a pressing need for state institutions to create a common platform where present and retired public officials could share knowledge and transfer experiences.

The Speaker was addressing executives of the Ex-Parliamentary Service Staff Association of Ghana (EPSSAG) when they called on him in parliament  on  Friday.

The leadership of EPSSAG called on the Speaker to remind him of a commitment that was made by his predecessor, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye to allocate office accommodation that will serve as a secretariat for the Association.

Chairperson of the Association, Ms. Lillian Bruce-Lyle who spoke on behalf of the group appealed to Speaker Bagbin to assist them to address critical concerns bothering on welfare and health needs.

That, she said, will ease the burden that is mostly associated with old age.

Ms. Bruce-Lyle urged the Speaker to support the association’s effort at creating an income-generating venture that will cushion the work of the association and its members.

The Rt. Hon. Speaker for his part urged the group to ensure its members take advantage of the opportunity offered them to visit the Parliament’s Medical Centre for regular check-ups.

He said the centre can now boast of critical equipment to address some of their health challenges.

He assured them of his willingness to engage with the relevant departments to see to it that an office accommodation is made available to support their work.

He urged them to develop programmes and activities that will bring both retired and serving staff together to share ideas on the need to ensure harmony in their work as parliamentary service staff.

Speaker Bagbin used the occasion to advise serving staff particularly directors to endeavor to soften their hold on what he describes as undefined sources of power as the subordinate staffs they mishandle today may become the directors of tomorrow.

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The Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sat on Friday, June 25, 2021 to consider the Auditor-General’s Reports of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the year ended 31st December 2017 which were referred to it for consideration.

Ministries of Communication, Lands and Natural Resources, and Works and Housing took turns to answer questions on what was described as poor accounting and weak control systems in these Ministries leading to loss of state funds.

When some institutions under these ministries appeared before the PAC to respond to queries in the Auditor-General’s Report of 2017, it was established that poor financial management and improper record-keeping remained a hurdle to be cleared to ensure the judicious use of public resources.

While some of these institutions failed to ensure best corporate practices to prevent waste, weak accounting systems in others paved the way for some officials to misappropriate funds.

The institutions that appeared before the PAC are the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Department of Urban Roads, and Department of Feeder Roads-Takoradi-in the Western Region.

The rests are Lands Commission-Wa (Upper West Region), Regional Lands Commission (Cape Coast) and the Public Works Department (PWD) Prestige and the Hydrological Services Department.

When the Ministry of Communication took its turn in the hot seat, it came to light that Internally Generated Funds (IGF) amounting to GHS 1,747,658.10 collected in 2016 was not lodged into the Public Funds Account.

It was also noted that the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT without authorisation disbursed GHS 1,344,171.29 out of the total amount of GHS 1,747,658.10 IGF collected within the period and although the Auditor-General’s Report asked the Centre to recover the misappropriated amount with interest, this has not been complied with.

Additionally, the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) was also cited for withholding an amount of GHS 120,381.07 but failed to remit to Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) thereby denying the state the Amuch-needed revenue while 54 payment vouchers with a total face value of GHS 627,487.05 were not made available for review by the Auditor General.

The PAC therefore directed officials of the Ministry to provide all these 54 vouchers to the Committee by close of work Wednesday June 30, 2021 or face the necessary sanctions.

It was disclosed that Mr. Toxla Joshua, a former Technical Officer of the Lands Commission at Wa in the Upper West Region vacated post on the 13th October 2016 but continued to be paid salary until March 2017 which resulted to unearned salary of GHS 9,022.98.

The Auditor-General Report indicated that even though management advised the bank to pay the accumulated unearned salary back to Government chest, this was not done.

The officials explained that there was an arrangement between the management of the Commission and Mr. Toxla to refund the outstanding unearned salary for onward payment into the Consolidated Fund.

In another vein, the Audit Report revealed that taxes withheld from allowances paid to Committee members and temporary staff amounting to GHS 11,234.38 was not remitted to the Commissioner General of the Ghana revenue Authority (GRA).

The Report, therefore, recommended that management should remit the tax amount of GHS11,234.38 to the Commissioner-General of the GRA but this has not been complied with.

Similarly, according to the Report, examination of records disclosed that Zenith Bank charged fees totalling GHS 5,086.26 in breach of contractual obligation resulting in reduction of the non-taxable income that should have accrued to the state and recommended for a refund into NTR Account at Bank of Ghana which was also not carried out.

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The Committee therefore recommended that Mr. Isaac Yeboah Asiamah refund the said amount of GHS 6,317.10 and pay same to the Consolidated Fund failure of which he would be surcharged.

It was noted during the period under review that management failed to stop the salary of Mr Isaac Yeboah Asiamah, a former employee of the Hydrological Services Department when he vacated post resulting to unearned salary totaling GHS 6,317.10 over a five-month period from October 2015 to February 2016.

The Committee also urged management to stop the payment of unearned Salaries to two officers at the PWD Prestige totaling GHS 10,570.00 and ensure its recovery failure of which they would be surcharged.

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