The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has lashed out at the Central Bank, over what it describes as lack of due diligence in the projections of the bank on figures provided for foreign exchange cash flows in 2015.
The 2015 report from the Auditor General’s Department showed that though the central bank projected 50 million dollars as cash flows from exported bauxite, the country only made 9 million creating a variance of 41 million dollars.
But answering questions on these projections, at the public accounts committee sitting, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Johnson Asiamah said the central bank collated its data from the various stakeholders and mining companies, and thus cannot be blamed for the differences in the projections and the actualities
He attributed the changes to the instability of the cedi, and other external factors on the world market.
“We look at all the sources and get the projection from the companies and the producers, who later come to tell us that there have been some challenges and may not be able to achieve this. There is a limit to how much you can project and that is why we have these variances”, he narrated.
“We don’t produce the figure but get them form the companies and the stake holders”, he added.
But a member of the committee and Member of Parliament for Fanteakwa South, Kofi Okyere Agyekum expressed disappointment for what he described as a lack of due diligence on the part of the central bank.
According to him, the Bank of Ghana could have checked thoroughly through these data and do some due diligence on them.
“You just told us you do your work based on the data. We are interested in you going into the data, and probing the data. You can’t just accept the data and tell us, it did not come from you. It is your duty to probe”.
He stressed, “Best practices else where does not allow for this. The variances are too huge. You are not doing us a great service”.
The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament begun public hearings from Tuesday, and it is expected to end on Friday.
The PAC will consider financial infractions of the Bank of Ghana, Food and Drugs Authority and other agencies.
James Klutse Avedzi, the Chairman of the committee said four reports of the Auditor General would be considered during the sitting.
The committee has started probing the Bank of Ghana’s foreign exchange transaction and receipts and payments for the first half year and second half year of 2015.
The rest include performance reports on disposal of government vehicles by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ministry of Health and performance report on drug use in Ghana by the Food and Drugs Authority.
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