MMDAs urged to implement Auditor's report

Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Director, Facts Africa, a Consultancy Firm, on Monday expressed concern about the lack of Audit Report Implementation Committees (ARICS) in many ministries, departments and agencies.

He said the lack of ARICs had resulted in the inability of the various ministries and agencies to effectively implement recommendations of the Auditor General's Report, thereby repeating the mistakes of financial irregularities, tax irregularities, cash irregularities, store procurement irregularities and non-financial irregularities on annual basis.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said this in Cape Coast during a day’s sensitization workshop on the findings and recommendations of the Auditor General’s Public Accounts of the country from 2009 to 2011.

The workshop, organized by Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) in collaboration with STAR-Ghana and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was to educate and sensitize Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), from the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA), Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese (AAK), Cape Coast, Mfantsiman and Atti-Morkwa district assemblies.

It was also to educate Regional Directors of Health and Education on the results of the findings and recommendations identified by the Auditor General on the public accounts of the country from 2009 to 2011.

The programme was also to build the capacity of the selected (MMDAs) on the role of the Audit Report Implementation Committees (ARICs) and the mechanisms for the implementation of the recommendations of Audit reports, as well as citizens’ role in ensuring good governance by demanding accountability at the local level.

The occasion was used to launch a report produced by the GII dubbed: "Show me the Money" an abridged version of the AG report findings and observations, in five selected ministries - the Ministries of Finance and Economic Planning, Education, Health, Youth and Sports, and Justice and Attorney General’s Department.

Mr Kan-Dapaah, also a former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), was unhappy that the Ministries of Finance and Economic Planning, Justice and Attorney General, and the Auditor General's Department, did not have ARIC, saying, that did not augur well for financial management system of the country and that there was the need for more efficient and effective ARICs in the country.

Touching on corruption, Mr Kan-Dapaah said the nation could only address its corruption issues if Ghanaians began demanding accountability from public sector officials and politicians, instead of politicizing all development issues.

He said when the public begin to demand accountability from public officials; the latter would sit up and save the country from its financial difficulties.

Mr Kan-Dapaah pointed out that the various financial irregularities captured in the Auditor General's report was due to the inability to implement the recommendations made by the AG report, coupled with the lack of monitoring and supervision and non-adherence to financial laws and regulations in the country.

He said it was time to audit the operational competence of the AGD, adding there was also the need to train staff of the Department to meet the demand of the global world and urged the government to put in place a public sector financial management system to ensure that public funds were properly protected and managed.

Mrs Mary Awelana Addah, acting Programmes Manager of GII, explained that the Launch of the “show me the money” report was to help educate the public in simple language, the findings and observations of the Auditor General's Report, with particular reference to the existence and functionality of ARICs and actions taken by MMDAs of the report's recommendation and the Judgment Debt.

She said the financial laws of Ghana demanded strict accountability and transparency in the use of public funds and that there were rules and regulations that governed both receipts and distribution of such funds.

Mrs Addah said the non-compliance with these rules, procedures and guidelines amounted to financial indiscipline.

Nana Kojo Addai, Chief of Abura in Cape Coast, who launched the report, lauded GII for coming up with the abridged version of the AG report and called on the various MMDAs to perform their duties as expected of them to remove all lapses and audit queries.