News:
January 28, 2011
The Member of Parliament for Jaman South, Yaw Maama Afful has called for the immediate prosecution of persons found to have misappropriated state funds by the Auditor General’s report.
He said the lack of prosecution over the years have resulted in some public officers being encouraged to continually embezzle state funds that have been accrued from the sweat of the ordinary Ghanaian.
The MP’s sentiments stem from the findings of the 2009 Auditor- Generals report which made damning revelations of malfeasance in the public service.
The report among others revealed several maladministration including a payroll overpayment from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs amounting to about GH¢2.49 billion, as a result of payroll irregularities in some of the Embassies where there were failures to promptly delete the names of staff who no longer worked with these Missions. This represented 90.3 per cent of irregularities in the public sector.
It also revealed losses totaling GH¢11,993,035 within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
The Ministry had no clear policy guidelines to regulate the payment of allowances to officials working with Ministers of the Ministry, arguing that these officials worked overtime and on some weekends and were granted monthly allowances pegged at the dollar rate, which amounted to more than their gross monthly salaries.
Contributing to a discussion of the report on e.tv Ghana’s Breakfast TV Show on Friday, the Member of Parliament for Jaman South, Yaw Maama Afful, called on the government to have the political will to bring those culpable to book, as these criminal acts have persisted over the years.
“It is totally unacceptable to have public official recklessly misuse such huge state funds, when monies are required to execute developmental projects to improve the lives of the masses’’ he said.
Story by: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh