Dr Bawumia (left) presenting an award to Board Chairman of Audit Service, Prof Edward Dua Agyeman
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has warned public office holders not to run to the presidency for redress in cases of expenditure disallowance and surcharge by the Auditor-General.
Dr Bawumia gave the warning in a keynote address at the Ghana Audit Service 8th Annual Accountability Lectures held yesterday at the Accra International Conference Centre under the theme: “Protecting The Public Purse – Our Commitment Towards Ghana’s Development Agenda.”
According to the Vice President, “Should any person be aggrieved by the application of the Auditor-General’s power of Surcharge and Disallowance, the remedy is provided by Article 187 (9) of the Constitution.”
Dr Bawumia warned that the Presidency will not countenance any attempt by some individuals to run to the seat of government to make appeals against punishments over acts of corruption or to seek the intervention of the President in the discharge of the Auditor-General’s duties.
Testimony
Special Audit into the liabilities of some government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) by the Audit Service reportedly led to the disallowance of GH¢5.4 billion.
The disallowed amount was said to have been wrongfully paid to contractors and other service providers by officials at the various ministries from 2014-2017.
According to Dr Bawumia, the huge disallowance “is a testimony that the Audit Service is committing itself to protecting the public purse.”
“My information is that public office holders found to have committed various infractions have so far been served with surcharge certificates and are requested to refund moneys into the public purse, and in fact, some moneys have been recovered,” he said.
“The question remains whether it is sufficient to ask people who have stolen public money to simply refund the moneys,” the Vice President said, apparently calling for tougher sanctions against persons found to have indulged in corrupt practices.
He therefore urged the Auditor-General to sustain the exercise (disallowance and surcharge) in order to instill discipline in public financial management at all levels of government and to deter public officers who might be contemplating to dupe the State using their unpatriotic practices.”
Dr Bawumia stressed that fighting corruption is a serious one considering the fact that such moneys being siphoned could be used to address the many developmental challenges facing Ghana such as inadequate schools, hospitals and other social amenities.
Timely Payment
The Vice President gave the assurance that government shall ensure that the Audit Service receives its budgetary allocations on timely basis.
“I can assure you Mr Auditor-General and the Audit Service Board that on our part as government we would make every effort to provide you with the needed resources for your work,” he said, adding that “we have already demonstrated it by increasing your budget for goods and services from GH¢14 million in 2016 to GH¢19 million in 2017, and almost doubling it to GH¢35 million in the 2018 budget.
“I am proud to say that as we did in 2017, government is committed to releasing all your budgeted funds in 2018. Delays in the release of funds compromise your ability to meet deadlines for the submission of the Auditor-General’s Report to Parliament,” he added.
Team Up
Furthermore, Dr Bawumia urged the Audit Service to work in partnership with the newly created Special Prosecution Office to win the war on corruption and abuse of public office.
New measures
Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo said “going forward, we want the disallowance and surcharge to be done in the course of the audit.”
As a result, he said, the Service has “developed guidelines on disallowance and surcharge to guide our staff.”
He expressed grave concern about the delays put up by the management of MDAs to frustrate auditors, warning that the Service will stop at nothing to exercise its authority to bring to book MDAs who frustrate the conduct of an audit.