News:
Ranking Member of the Public Account Committee
December 13, 2021
Ranking Member of the Public Account Committee (PAC) Kofi Okyere Agyekum has expressed worry over the conduct of some Members of Parliament (MPs) throwing dust into the eyes of Ghanaians by propagating those infractions in the Auditor General’s (AG) report as indications that corruption in Ghana has gone higher.
According to him there is the need for Ghanaians and some MPs to be schooled on the AG’s report, and he has taken the trouble to read the report extensively, “the public is being fed with misconception”, he added.
“If there are ten million infractions it does not mean those monies have been lost to the state, or those monies have been misappropriated”.
Addressing the Parliamentary Press Corps on Friday, December 10, 2021, he cited that “if you take the AG’s report of Boards and Corporations for the year 2017, he has stated that there are twelve billion cedis infraction, and without reading the report some have gone to town to say the above amount have been lost to the state.
Additionally, eleven point eight billion cedis had been lost to what is called loans, debts, all it means is that government corporations have given to their staffs; for instance GNP may decide to give money to BOST to go into petroleum business, that is a loan from one corporation of government to another.
“If they don’t pay at the time they are supposed to pay, that is an infraction. Again, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) all the taxes they collect, they have banks colleting it for them at Aflao border and the port. The law requires that when they are collected within twenty four (24) hours those monies should be sent to GRA accounts”.
And added that, if they do not send it two or three days, the AG when he goes to audit GRA, he would say that those monies were collected later than the day expected, so they are infractions, it would be captures.
He explained that those monies have already been received by government because they were only transferred late. But have been transferred by the commercial banks.
Take for instance if you are not supposed to pay allowance to the board of directors but that payment is being made because you did not get approval for that, it is cash irregularity, that money is not lost, he noted.
“So if for political expediency, we say if you want to do E-Levy go to the Auditor General’s report, in there twelve billion cedis irregularities has been identified, so go and collect that money so that there is no need for the levy, it is a lie. That money has been collected already, it is not correct to say those monies have not been refunded, you should go for them”.
“There are people who think, if infraction is going up it means corruption is going up; it is also a fallacy. AG’s report in 2015 there were 3.1 billion cedis infractions, in 2016 it dropped and went up in 2017 which I am talking about. It went down in 2018 and 2019 5.5 billion. Can you in the same vain say in 2019 it dropped so corruption is going down? That cannot be said”.
Mr. Agyekum noted that he had to come out and explain because people who should understand the workings of the Auditor General better are misleading the public. Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu said, “there was no need for e-levy because AGs money can be collected, that is a misleading statement”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com