{"id":315031,"date":"2017-04-30T09:56:52","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T09:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=315031"},"modified":"2017-04-30T09:56:52","modified_gmt":"2017-04-30T09:56:52","slug":"public-accounts-system-must-be-more-flexible-george-loh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/04\/public-accounts-system-must-be-more-flexible-george-loh\/","title":{"rendered":"Public accounts system must be more flexible – George Loh"},"content":{"rendered":"
A former Member of Parliament for North Dayi,\u00a0George Loh, believes the Auditor General\u2019s report comes under the scrutiny of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) a little too late for any lasting impact because of rigid systems.<\/p>\n
Mr. Loh, also a former ranking member of the committee, explained that malfeasance\u00a0are normally highlighted years after the facts because of a backlog issues.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”PqZjIfgVwZrfQHxFIV5WXWVgrgpo2H7Q”]\u201cTime is of the essence when dealing with these reports because the people sometimes pass away before we get the money\u2026 we would never get to the end of this thing if the backlog issue is not sorted,\u201d he noted on The Big Issue<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Public Accounts Committee under the seventh Parliament, on Tuesday, begun public hearings to consider financial infractions.<\/p>\n It has looked at reports from the Bank of Ghana\u2019s foreign exchange transaction and receipts and payments for the first half year, and second half year of 2015, performance reports on disposal of government vehicles by the Ministries of Food and Agriculture and Health, and the performance report on drug use in Ghana by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).<\/p>\n Given that the committee is dealing with reports from two years ago, Mr. Loh noted that, attempts at proper accountability were likely to evade the committee.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chief Director, who is the spending officer over the past two years, may have been shifted or has been taken away so who should speak to the accounts? The accountants who did the spending may have retired or died or gone somewhere, so time is of the essence when we are dealing with reports like these,\u201d the former MP explained.<\/p>\n In his view, the accountability\u00a0systems must be made more flexible to among other things, perhaps ensure that critical\u00a0personnel in various agencies are made to give account before leaving office.<\/p>\n Flexible system of chairing<\/strong><\/p>\n This flexibility must also extend to the system of chairing the committee, which normally sees a Minority member of Parliament assume that responsibility, according to Mr. Loh.<\/p>\n For this particular Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, James Avedzi, the deputy Minority leader is serving as the chair.<\/p>\n