By: Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Frank Amoakohene, has assured the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament of commitment of the Regional Coordinating council to ensure compliance of all cited individuals and organizations with the Committee’s recommendations and report after its consideration of the Auditor General’s Report.
The Committee is in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, to consider the Auditor General’s Report for 2024.
At a meeting with the Public Accounts Committee at the Ashanti Regional Administration at the start of the Committee’s work, the Regional Minister noted that government frowns on financial infractions by public officials especially when such tendencies bother on repetitions of similar or same misappropriation for which the PAC in the past had made recommendations for corrections.
“His Excellence the President has indicated that any executive officer or public official who jokes around the Audit report or recommendations thereof can even stand prosecution. So we are very much alert to this and also averted our minds to it. All that you are doing is to make us a better version of ourselves as an institution. I don’t see why an infraction would occur the previous year and same will occur this year. If it’s a new thing that’s ok but for it to keep occuring almost every year, that should tell us that the institutions are not learning or there’s a deeper root that needs to be taken care of”, Dr. Amoakohene said.
The Chairperson of the PAC, Mrs. Abena Osei OPARE, assured all that the five day public hearing exercise will look at the public financial report for the year 2024 without witch hunting, but fairly scrutinize the report so as to come out with recommendations to protect public funds.
“For the 2nd Zonal sitting, we have the Ashanti region, we’ve Bono, Ahafo and Bono East. And so we are going to look through the Report generated by the Audit Service. And for this that we’re looking at, is the year ending 31st December, 2024.”
She stressed, “And we always say, this is not a witch hunting exercise. We’re hear to find out why one District Assembly or school was cited for one infraction or another and why it has taken them time to put a stop to it.”
She asked for the cooperation of all the concerned MMDAs with the PAC to do its work.
