President John Dramani Mahama has announced plans to hold a crucial meeting with the Auditor-General, the Chief Justice, and the Attorney-General to deliberate on stronger deterrent measures against persistent financial irregularities cited in annual audit reports.
The President expressed concern that the losses highlighted by the Auditor-General have continued to increase over the years, stressing the need for decisive action to end the cycle of fiscal indiscipline.
Speaking at the 12th Annual Governing Boards, Chief Directors, and Chief Executives Conference in Ho, President Mahama said, “Recently I’ve been watching the Public Accounts Committee and it’s so pathetic, you know, why must we every year congregate at the Public Accounts Committee and then you hear all kinds of atrocious, you know, things. I mean recklessness with public funds and resources. And so I have a meeting on Thursday with the Chief Justice, the Attorney-General, and others to find a final solution to this Auditor General’s report.”
He lamented that despite repeated revelations of misuse of public funds, little has been done to hold offenders accountable. “Persons who infringe are found guilty of infractions or do not follow due procedure or lead to loss of public resources, we must have a fast-track process to Nsawam. Fast track, before you see you are in Nsawam, six months, you know, until we do that, until there’s deterrence, we’re going to come every year and they say total misappropriation and infractions found out by the Auditor-General is about GHC15 billion.”
Highlighting the potential of such savings, President Mahama added, “…if we save GHC 15 billion, can you imagine what it could do, you know? And so we’re going to have a meeting, we’re going to bring some, we’ve not fully implemented the constitutional provision. There’s a part of the provision that says after the Public Accounts Committee has sat on the Auditor-General’s report, Parliament must set up a committee. What we don’t know is whether it should be a parliamentary committee or it’s a committee not necessarily made of parliamentarians to implement the findings of the Auditor General.”
The President criticized the existing accountability mechanisms, noting that they have failed to produce the desired impact. “Right now, what we use is the ARICs (Audit Report Implementation Committee), and every department is supposed to set up an ARIC. But once they’ve come from the Public Accounts Committee, virtually nobody follows up on the recommendations that were given. And so the Audit Reports Implementation Committees are not working,” he said.
He emphasized the need for stronger enforcement to ensure accountability in public spending. “And so we must find a way we can create deterrence. Until people know that you can be held responsible for these things that you do. They’ll continue to do the same thing. And so after Thursday, I’m sure we’ll come up with some way where persons who are culpable of misusing the resources of the people will be held to account so that others do not follow suit,” he declared.
By Bawa Musah
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