PAC Chairman wants more powers to punish Public Officials who misapply State Funds

Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, James Klutse Avedzi, has emphasized the need for the Committee to be granted powers that would make it to take immediate actions against persons found in the Auditor-General’s report to have misapplied or state funds.

Avedzi, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ketu North constituency and the Deputy Minority Leader, expressed worry about the continued disregard for the public financial management laws.

He said this in Tamale on Monday at the start of a week-long sitting by the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC) to consider the 2017 report of the Auditor General on some public institutions in the Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East, and Upper West Regions.

The Four reports of the Auditor General being considered during the Committee’s Regional Public Hearing include the Technical Universities and Polytechnics reports, pre-tertiary educational institutions report, the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies’ report (management and utilization of the District Assemblies Common Fund, and the Internally Generated Funds and other accounts).

He spoke about the powers of PAC to fight irregularities in the Auditor General’s report, saying as things stand now the “PAC can only make recommendations to the House and when the House approves our recommendations, it goes back to the various institutions cited for implementation of the recommendations.

The Chairman of the Committee intimated that the Committee will request Parliament to grant it such powers that would enable for effect punishment on erring agencies. This is expected to be contained in a Private Members Bill.

Ranking Member on the PAC, Kofi Okyere Agyekum, said it was necessary to sanction people, who engaged in misappropriation and misapplication of state funds as well as recover the funds for the state.

Source: africanewsradio.com