The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has expressed outrage over what it describes as failure of State Institutions to prosecute persons and institutions indicted by various reports on corrupt schemes within state agencies.
It said the state has failed to police the public purse even after the Auditor General discovered that majority of public servants have largely contributed to causing financial loss to the State.
The 2012 Auditor General’s report indicted a number of institutions and individuals for various corrupt deals.
[contextly_sidebar id=”GqyumvgoSi8RNOcJ23dZR2JCAWrOzA97″]The report, for instance, indicated that about 48.4 million cedis could not be accounted for by district assemblies across the country.
Though the Chairman of the Public Account Committee in Parliament, Kwaku Agyemang Manu has called for the prosecution of persons who have been implicated in the report, no bold decision has been taken to prosecute the individuals and institutions found culpable.
GII maintains that little has been done to ensure that corrupt officials pay for their wrongful acts against the State.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, the acting Programmes Manager at GII, Mary Adah emphasized the need for state institutions responsible for administering justice to step up and protect the public purse.
“We need someone as a gatekeeper to ensure that when these reports come out, they continue to follow them up to ensure that people who are supposed to be sanctioned are sanctioned, people who are supposed to retrieve misappropriated funds for the state retrieve the funds for the state,”Mary Adah insisted.
She said Ghanaians continue to witness the practice of government failing to prosecute corrupt officials, saying “people are called on, each and every year to come up and respond to questions and at the end of the day ..they are not sanctioned.”
She believes government will deal with the canker if it upholds the “naming and shaming” strategy.
Aside the Auditor General’s report, the Commissioner for the Commission on Human Rights and Adminstrative Justive (CHRAJ), Lauretta Lamptey has been in the news lately for spending about 200,000 dollars on rent alone.
Her action has prompted various groups and individuals to call for her dismissal.
President Mahama has already asked the Chief Justice to investigate Lamptey over the spending.
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citiffmonline.com/Ghana