News:
October 8, 2013
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has threatened to order the Ministry of Finance to freeze government subvention to the Ghana Atomic Energy commission and other institutions following the late submission of their audited accounts.
This follows a revelation by staff of the office of the Auditor General at the sitting of the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday that, they had just completed the auditing of the 2010 accounts of the Ghana Atomic Energy commission.
Explaining the basis for the Public Accounts Committee’s decision, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Hon. Kwaku Agyemang Manu, said the Ghana Atomic Energy commission had breached the financial regulations in the country.
“We are not happy about the way they are running their finances, their accounts are in arrears, some audit queries have not been responded to and we believe that they are not doing any serious efficient and financial management in the field. And that is not healthy for the organization, so that is where we are not comfortable,” he said.
He explained that according to law, the account is supposed to be provided three months before the end of each year so that auditors can include it in their reports to Parliament.But in the case of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, “the auditing of the 2010 account has just been completed, 2011 has not been submitted to the auditors, 2012 has not been submitted to the auditors and we are in 2013 getting to the end of 2013,” he stated.
Hon. Kwaku Agyemang Manu indicated that it is because of these reasons that the Public Accounts Committee would apply to the Ministry of Finance to freeze governments’ subvention to the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.
“The Auditor General staff told us that if you don’t provide accounts, the Audit Act will not permit the Finance Minister to release your allocations to you in the subsequent years. And we said that we are going to try to apply that rule to the last letter to force them to submit their accounts,” he added.