News:
November 27, 2023
Member of Parliament for Navrongo Central Sampson Tangombu Chiragia has noted that through the proactive nature of the Chairman of the Public Account Committee (PAC) Dr. James Klutse Avedzi and his Ranking Kofi Okyere Agyekum, the eighth (8th) Parliament has been able to address years of arrears of audited reports from the Auditor General.
According to him what has worked in their favor has been the resolve by the Chairman and his Ranking to tackle two years report within a year and they had to zone the whole country into four and try to catch up with the gap which dates back to 2016.
In the Northern sector, the Committee moved to have its public hearings there, then for the Central zone which comprises Ashanti and Brong Regions, then the Western zone. “We have the Central and Western Region then Greater Accra, Eastern and Ho also had their public hearings which add up to four zones”, he said.
The Navrongo Central lawmaker who is a member of the Committee pointed out in an interview that in the year 2021, the PAC try to catch up because the backlog was too much, “so as we speak we have covered a lot; we have done it up to 2022”.
By June next year he noted that PAC will tackle the 2023 report of the Auditor General whiles in September 2023 he is hopeful the 2024 Audited Account should be dealt with and expecting that by 2025 they should be full up to date.
And further revealed that previously he believes PAC was using a year to address Auditor General’s report and further explained that it has not been easy for the Committee members during recess. “When we have to be with our constituents, we have to move around, we have been busy for the past two years, we have not had time at all to stay at our constituencies.”
On issues of infractions as whether there has been improvement, he noted that when they had their public hearing in September this year, they noticed there has been some level of improvement when it comes to procurement issues.
The Financial Management Act was passed in 2016 and if you could not find receipt at the time of audit and there is infractions you are supposed to pay; salary and vacation of post, we use to face challenges on that all but those things have reduced drastically, he said.
Again, on procurement since we started referring people to the Attorney General for prosecution people are doing the right thing and the procurement issues have reduced drastically.
According to him, the only issue they are facing now is with Zoomlion, stating that when it comes to sanitation, monies are paid in advance towards addressing sanitation issues, but assured that the committee is dealing with it. “We have warned all the Assemblies not to pay money in advance before contracts are done”, he stated.
Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com