According to The Heritage newspaper, the office of the auditor general will soon embark on an audit of the ministries of parliamentary affairs, aviation, harbours and railways, public sector reforms and fisheries.

These ministries were among those run by the New Patriotic Party led by President John Agyekum Kufuor but which five were re-aligned or scrapped in line with President John Evans Atta Mills’s pledge to run a lean government.

The audit will include an investigation into the financial accounts of the ministries, their assets, property and files. This is expected to be followed by a submission of the files of the defunct ministries to the public records and archives administration department.

“Obviously, where the Attorney General’s department is needed, they would be called to duty,” a source at the corridors of power hinted.

Investigations revealed that, since the announcement of the re-alignment of the ministries, staff of some of the ministries, especially civil servants in charge of the stores, stated taking inventory of the assets of their ministries at the behest of their immediate bosses, who obviously have received instructions from their directors.

A visit to some of the scrapped ministries revealed empty offices. Whilst the ministry of parliamentary affairs was virtually empty, the other four had some staff who were directing visitors to the ministries, government departments or agencies (MDAs) that they could find ex-staff of the defunct ministries. Our investigation also revealed that most civil servants of the ministries realigned have been posted to other areas under the civil service. This process, however, was not sparred of some errors. For instances, an aquaculture expert that was needed in the ministry of food and agriculture was posted to the ministry of chieftaincy and culture.

Public relations officers who were on secondment at other ministries have been posted back to their mother ministry – the ministry of information. Obviously, many are those who have been trekking to the office of the head of civil service to lobby to be posted to the ministries of their choice. Chief directors and directors have been posted to other MDAs whilst those due for retirement are preparing to go home.

So difficult was it to find most of the directors of the scrapped ministries in office as the Heritage was told that such directors had reported to their new places of work, others had taken their annual leave and were familiarizing themselves with their new posts.

Emmanuel Quaye, the ex-chief director of the ministry of fisheries, told the Heritage that he would be retiring soon since he was due for retirement. He showed these reporters documentary evidence of staff who were at the ministry of fisheries and have been posted to other MDAs.

Information picked by The Heritage also indicated that the three-story building that housed the ministry of parliamentary affairs would most likely be taken over by the Office of Parliament as office space.

The land and the structure that housed the ministries of fisheries would be given to the ministry of foreign affairs who would in turn develop it for its usage. The offices of the ministry of public sector reforms, aviation, harbours and railways would be taken over by other MDAs.