Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, Dr. James Klutsey Avedzi is pushing for more powers that will enable the committee punish persons and institutions whose omission and commission results in loss of public funds.
He cited cash irregularities, rent irregularities where some staff are not paying rent for public facilities, infractions on taxes and procurement irregularities as some of the concerns that over the period have appeared in the Auditor General’s report.
“It is becoming worrying that issues that have been reported and recommendations made by the auditor general, keep coming and it’s a worrying trend. Also most officials come to lie (for want of a better word) and the representations are not what clearly happens on the ground,” the PAC chair recounted.
Interacting with the media in Tamale on the sidelines of the committee’s siting in Tamale where they are going through the 2017 Auditor General’s report, Dr. Avedzi said the trends remains the same and the PAC needed more powers to take action against some of these in order to serve as a deterrent to others.
“For now, we only make recommendations and the powers of parliament i.e. legislative and oversight thus limit us in a way, having the powers to take action would save this nation a great deal,” Dr. Avedzi added.
At the sitting on Monday pre-tertiary institutions including Business Secondary, Presbyterian Senior high, St Charles all in Tamale and Bole Senior High in the Savanah region as well as tertiary institutions such as Tamale Technical University and the Dr. Hilla Limann Technical University in the Upper West Region were hauled to responds to “red flags” raised by the Auditor General’s report.
During the five days sitting, management of public educational institutions and the various Metropolitan, Municipals and District Assemblies from the five regions of the North will show up in Tamale to answered to issues raised in the auditor general’s report for 2017.
Story by: Nelson Adanuti Nyadror
