Corrupt officials in Ghana -Corruption in the public sector may continue to prevail if strong measures are not taken against Parliamentarians who keep interfering in investigations by Auditor General’s department; on corrupt state officials.
While addressing members of his party at their annual National Delegates Conference in Cape Coast, President Nana Addo gave security agencies a directive to investigate any official within his administration who will be accused of corruption.
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But the implementation of Nana Addo’s directive for sanction of corrupt officials in Ghana may not be as seamless as expected. Some alleged corrupt officials now resort to using Members of Parliament to beg for a discontinuance of their cases.
The Auditor General’s department has bitterly lamented that some Parliamentarians have been pleading on behalf of corrupt state officials who are being investigated by the department.
Vincent Odikro Nyame, a representative of the department, explains that these actions by some MPs are frustrating their efforts to fight corruption in the public sector.
These complaints by the AG’s department follow the outfit’s reservations about the power of the proposed office of the Special Prosecutor to recover looted state funds.
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Mr. Nyame said that whenever a wrongdoing is suspected, the suspects are given up to three months, in the name of fairness, to answer to queries.
This then gives room for manipulations that can include twisting of evidence, certificates and other proofs that may implicate the auditees.
More so, until the AG department has received the responses from these auditees, no one can say what they have alleged.
Mr. Nyame explained that during this long waiting period, honorable members come to Auditor General’s offices to come and plead on behalf of some [of the queried auditees].
The same goes for some officers in the department who go ahead to tamper with the documents meant to be used against these officials.
our officers on the field also do it and when it comes before the committee, then you will notice that it was signed just two or three days [to the Public Accounts Sitting (PAC) summons]
He noted that some questionable documents that come before them as certificates “were signed a week, two weeks, sometimes three days, before the settings.”
These interference he explained is a huge challenge which is impeding the success of the investigation.
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