The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has chided the Youth and Sports Ministry for failing to retrieve approximately twenty-seven million Ghana cedis from the Asongtaba Cottage Industry.<\/p>\n
The monies were paid to the company for the\u00a0training of\u00a010,000\u00a0youth in dress and beads making among others.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”UWZDMAHZaO4KO1hRg2k1ZsyrdBNzmlFt”]But an audit report by the Auditor General revealed that the company failed to honour its responsibility of training the youth, but was fully paid.<\/p>\n
Specific recommendations from the audit report indicated that an immediate refund of Ghc26 million be obtained from the Asongtaba Cottage Industry for failing to provide the services.<\/p>\n
But appearing before the PAC on Tuesday, the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Vincent Oppong Asamoah, told the committee that his Ministry was yet to retrieve the money from the company.<\/p>\n
According to Mr. Asamoah, the Sports Ministry had only referred the matter to the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO).<\/p>\n
“Apart from referring it to EOCO, we have not done anything about it,” he revealed whilst also noting\u00a0that the\u00a0Asongtaba Cottage Industry was contesting the issue in court.<\/p>\n
The Chairman of the PAC, Kwaku Agyaman Manu, and other members, expressed displeasure at the Ministry\u2019s handling of its finances.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we were expecting was that, when the Ministry comes, you say you have have made representations to Asongtaba. This is what he has written to us… then we can do a report and say that the ministry\u2019s efforts to collect the money indicates that Asongtaba is in court. He has written to us and this is the matter. But now it is like the Ministry is doing nothing about the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also appearing before the committee, the Attorney General Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong stated that Government has\u00a0so far been successful with the retrieval of some monies unlawfully paid to some companies.<\/p>\n
She also stated that her outfit will be guiding the Sports Ministry in their attempts to retrieve the monies owed them.<\/p>\n
“Mr. chairman, we will guide them on this. In fact, the ministry has been working with regards to\u00a0the non-recovery of interest free loans which was brought to our attention and some over payments. We\u2019ve been working very hard on that together with the Ministry. It is not as if they\u2019ve been resting…\u201d<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
By Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has chided the Youth and Sports Ministry for failing to retrieve approximately twenty-seven million Ghana cedis from the Asongtaba Cottage Industry. The monies were paid to the company for the\u00a0training of\u00a010,000\u00a0youth in dress and beads making among others. [contextly_sidebar id=”UWZDMAHZaO4KO1hRg2k1ZsyrdBNzmlFt”]But an audit report by the Auditor General revealed that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n