No political commitment to implement PAC recommendations – Dr Jonah
Dr Kwesi Jonah, Head of Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, has said there is no political commitment to implement the recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC).
He said if the situation if not reversed would lead to the continued misappropriation of funds which would derail the country’s development agenda.
Dr Jonah said this when he led a roundtable discussion in Accra on the “Findings on the Implementation of PAC Recommendations on Audit Reports” conducted by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) with support from the UNDP.
He said the study by the GACC was timely and focused since many people were in politics but they did not understand how State funds were utilised and stressed the need for the State to commit itself by implementing PAC recommendations to save funds.
Dr Jonah said there was no need to establish new legal frameworks to tackle PAC matters but rather there was the need to explore the existing legal framework to ensure that the right thing was done to protect State funds.
Mr Albert Kan Dapaah, Chairman of PAC, said Parliament was still devising ways to make sure that action was taken after the PAC report on findings of audited reports were completed saying, “Nothing has so far been done to any institution found culpable”.
He said there was the need to set up a financial court to tackle PAC recommendations but the Chief Justice saw the request as unconstitutional since those who would sit on the cases were likely not to be judges and lawyers but rather Chartered Accountants.
Mr Kan Dapaah said another challenge that hampers the implementation of the PAC recommendations was that some of the key personalities involved were members of the implementation committee from the institutions.
Mrs Florence Dennis, Executive Secretary of GACC, said her outfit assessed effectiveness of the PAC in enhancing the judicious use of public resources and to ascertain the extent to which the PAC recommendations implemented.
The GACC recommended that there should be an establishment of an independent body of Parliament such as an Administrative Review Panel to implement the recommendations of PAC and called on civil society groups to take interest in the activities of PAC and advocated for the implementation and publication of status of PAC recommendations.
Source: GNA