Assemblies to get clearance from Public Accounts Committee

Koforidua, Sept. 8, GNA - District assemblies need to have a clearance certificate from the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to show they have complied with all the directives in the Auditor Generals Report before they could benefit from their Common Fund and other statutory funds.

Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, said this at the committee's regional public sitting at Koforidua on Tuesday.

He said the committee decided to organize the regional sitting to enable people in the regions to know how their funds were being used by public officials.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said sometimes the Auditor General recommended that some personnel be punished to serve as deterrent to others but often such persons did not tell what happened.

He said it was only when the committee sat in public that people would get to know what those officials did for which they were being punished to serve as warning to others.

Mr Kan-Dapaah appealed to district assemblies to appoint people with the requisite capacities and qualifications as the chairmen of their Finance and Administration Sub-committee to enable them to help the assemblies to effectively manage their finances.

He urged District, Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives to allow their internal control systems to work to reduce financial audit quarries of the assemblies.

Earlier at the opening ceremony, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Ahmed Baba-Jamal, suggested to the Audit Service to consider auditing the assemblies at least twice a year to help improve the quality of management of finances and resources of the assemblies.

The sitting would consider the Auditor General's report of the accounts of the district assemblies from 31st December 2001 to 2004 and the Auditor General's report on the management and utilization of statutory and other funds of the Assemblies for the period covering 1st January 2001 to 31st December 2004.

The District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies in Greater Accra, Volta and Eastern regions would be appearing before the committee over the next three days.