James Klutse Avedzi, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, has stated that he disagrees with the Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame's assertion that it was unconstitutional to publish the audit report on Covid expenditure.
The Auditor-office General's is required by law to publish audit reports, according to the guy.
"I completely disagree with the Attorney General. I want to know why he is requesting that the Auditor General not publish the Covid 19 report. Why did he not publish the previous reports, the standard MDA reports, and the assemblies report as soon as the Auditor General submitted them to Parliament? Why is he suggesting that they unpublish this one?
"Article 187 of the Constitution clearly established the position of Auditor General and the Auditor General's office. According to Article 187(2), the Auditor General is responsible for auditing Ghana's public accounts, which include all of the country's departments, agencies, ministries, public bodies, businesses, courts, universities, and district assemblies. So this Clause 2 of 187 requires the AG to audit all of these accounts," he said on Thursday to TV3's Komla Klutse.
In a letter, Mr. Dame expressed his disagreement with the Auditor-decision General's to make the findings on Covid expenditures public.
According to Mr. Dame, the Auditor-General is required by Article 187(5) of the Constitution to submit his report to Parliament in order to call attention to any anomalies in the accounts audited.
"During our review, we found that senior management staff and other supporting staff of the Ministry of Information paid themselves a total amount of GH151,500.00 as COVID-19 risk allowance for coming to work during the lockdown," the Auditor-General report reads.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) entered into a contract for the supply of 26 Toyota Hiace Deluxe Ambulances valued at US$4,049,460.12 on December 15, 2021, of which US$607,419,02 was paid via PV No. IPF 22-007 of September 2, 2022, and which is due to be delivered on January 15, 2022.
The ambulances had still to be delivered, according to the article, as on November 28, 2022.
But the Attorney General noted in his letter that the report of the special audit on the Government's COVID-19 transactions had been made available online. I believe that publishing the COVID-19 audit report, or really any audit report, before it has been either considered by Parliament or referred to a committee of Parliament, would be premature in light of the constitutional provisions pertaining to the Auditor-duty General's after the preparation of audit reports.
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