The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has summoned officials of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to appear before it Tuesday, as it begins public hearings on the 2015 Auditor General’s report.
The committee will be interrogating reports covering the central bank’s foreign exchange receipts and payments for the year 2015.
Another institution that will be invited to answer questions on financial infractions is the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).
The Chairman of the committee, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, said four reports of the Auditor General would be considered.
These are the Bank of Ghana’s 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 Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Health and performance report on drug use in Ghana by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).
The hearings would be the first for the current Parliament after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was inaugurated.
The hearings are expected to come to a close on Friday.
On the implementation of the recommendations by the Audit General’s in its reports on dealing with the infractions, Dr Avedzi said that Parliament has no prosecutorial powers, however, the House would rely on the Audit Committee that replaced the Audit Report Implementation Committee to ensure that necessary recommendations were carried out.
Nana Marfo Amaniampong, Deputy Ranking Member of the PAC, appealed to stakeholders to rise up and bring public corruption and malfeasance under check just like how the current galamsey campaign has caught on.
“A lot of people in Ghana got a lot of insight into the work of parliament through the Public Accounts Committee and you are the conduit through which they get these briefings because your reportage in the electronic and print media would enable them to keep abreast with the performance of this important committee.
“So for you to be with us in this place, we are very grateful to you. What we will employ you to do is to really imbibe whatever our consultants are going to tell us so that whatever you give us out there anytime we come for sitting will be nothing but the whole story so that confusions after reportage would be nipped in the bud,” he said.
Nana Agyemang Birikorang, the Dean of the Parliamentary Press corps, pleaded with the leadership of the committee to make copies of the Auditor General’s reports readily available to the media to enable them to report factually.
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