President Mahama urges PAC not to dent image of government

President John Mahama
President John Mahama

President John Dramani  Mahama has asked the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament not to use its hearings as an avenue to create disaffection for or dent the image of governments.

Rather, he said the committee should come up with good recommendations which would promote transparency and accountability in the work of public servants.

“I believe the PAC must not be public drama just to show that a committee is working or just use it to throw mud at the government of the day,” he said ahead of the PAC’s sittings which begin today.

President Mahama made the call at a meeting with heads of civil society organisations (CSOs) at the Flagstaff House, Kanda in Accra.

The heads of 29 CSOs, including the Institute of Economic Affairs, IDEG, the Ghana Integrity Initiative, CCD-Ghana and Imani-Ghana, were present at the meeting.

The PAC consists of not more than 25 members and is chaired by a Member of Parliament who does not belong to the party which controls the Executive arm of government.

The duty of the committee is to examine the audited accounts of ministries, departments and agencies, showing the appropriation of the sums granted by Parliament to meet the public expenditure of the government as presented to Parliament by the Auditor-General.

President Mahama said the country was confronted with the issue of paying money to CP, as the company is threatening to return to arbitration and charge interest on the money owed it.

He lamented that when the issue of payment to CP was brought before the PAC, it was turned into a public show, while the committee did not give any clear recommendation at the end of the sittings.

The President said the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning withheld payment to CP on two occasions because the issue had come up at the PAC sitting but the PAC had not made any suggestion on the way forward.

“Our commitment to transparency and accountability must be complete. The PAC sittings must not be a public show because ‘the government I don’t like is in power and so let’s do this to just tarnish the reputation of the government’,” he advised.

Source: Daily Graphic

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