The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is to liaise with the Attorney-General’s (A-G) Department, to prosecute offenders of procurement procedures in state institutions.
This follows the failure of offenders to adhere to recommendations by the Committee on those infractions as stated in the Auditor General’s report.
Dr James Klutse Avedzi, Chairman of the PAC of Parliament, announced the move at the committee’s sitting, in Sunyani, in the Bono Region, yesterday.
He said the committee would recommend cases of procurement breaches to the Attorney General’s Department for prosecution, explaining that this could be punitive to ensure that officials do the right thing.
“This is to curtail such infractions or breaches which keep coming to us”, Dr Avedzi said.
He stated that proceedings by the committee was to enable the inductees from Senior High Schools (SHSs) and Technical Universities as well as Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) in the Bono and Ashanti regions respond to queries made against their respective institutions.
The queries that came up during the sitting were unsupported payments, outstanding rent and un-earned salary among others.
Meanwhile, the Committee has directed the former Headmaster of Menji Senior High School (SHS), Mr Paul Nsiede, currently at the Techiman Municipal Education office, to immediately make available documents concerning expenditure amounting to GH¢15,000 whilst in office as a headmaster of the school.
Failure to do so, would require he pays the said amount to the school’s account.
According to the Auditor General’s report, Mr Nsiede did not include document on those expenditures in his handling over notes to the current headmaster before assuming his current post.
The PAC, he noted, was working hard to ensure that it facilitated work on the report in order to reduce the backlog of cases.
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, SUNYANI
