The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has revealed that despite government’s interventions in fighting corruption in the public sector, the situation still persist.
According to Dr. Michael Ofori-Mensah, a Senior Research Fellow at the IEA, Ghana continues to record identical cases of misappropriation of public funds “often within the same public institutions,” on a year-to-year basis.
[contextly_sidebar id=”EBGiUQCFZh0jLkoeFIvFclM7HXWSathG”]“In some sections of the public sector, a culture of impunity to embezzle has taken grip. It will be apt to describe public financial management as in a state of permanent crisis,” he observed.
He said one of the deep-rooted governance problems Ghana faces is the lack of effective public financial management adding that weak internal controls in public institutions “accounts for a significant number of financial irregularities.”
Ghana in recent times has recorded a number of corruption. Some of them include financial malfeasance recorded in the Savannah Accelerated Authority (SADA) programme, GYEEDA and the infamous payment of GH¢51 million to businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
But according to Dr. Ofori-Mensah, “Effective enforcement of remedial measures will require a collective approach – with Parliament conducting enhanced oversight; the Judiciary taking steps to educate the public on the FAC, as well as ensuring cases which come before the courts are dealt with expeditiously; the Executive providing the Audit Service with adequate resources and also compelling ARICs to fulfill their statutory duties.|
The research fellow however urged government to institute punitive measures to enforce section 30 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584).
“Under the above section, Audit Report Implementation Committees (ARICs) – the intra-departmental units in public offices – are charged with enforcing the Auditor-General’s recommendations.”
He also pleaded for the financial and technical capacity of Parliament to be strengthened while calling for adequate measures to be put in place to ensure “the Financial Administrative Courts (FACs) – established under section 66 (1) of the Financial Administration Act, 2003 (Act 654) – are utilized.”
The Commissioner of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Vivian Lauretta Lamptey is currently being investigated by the Attorney General’s Department for spending huge taxpayers money on hotel bills instead of occupying her official residence.
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana