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PAC to crack whip on recalcitrant public institutions

Mr James Klutse Avedzi, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, yesterday issued a stern caution of cracking the whip on heads of public institutions who fail to strictly adhere to the recommendations in the Auditor General’s report.

He said the committee was becoming fed-up with numerous excuses from the leadership since laws had been promulgated to guide them in the administration of their various offices.

Mr Avedzi was compelled to issue the stern warning yesterday when it became apparent that many leaders of public institutions were in the habit of appearing before the committee to offer apologies for their infractions.

The Chairman was equally not pleased with the continuous absence of ministers of state and their deputies in assisting the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MMDA’s) under them to answer queries from the committee.

He opined that with such a stance, the ministers and their deputies were not helping the fight against corruption adding that it would be prudent to disallow ministers and their deputies from sitting on the committee.

Mr Avedzi questioned the rationale behind having the Minster of Information and his deputies globe-trotting to organise a town hall meeting abroad while leaving urgent business behind.

Mr Richard Quarshigah, a member of the committee was not enthused particularly with the absence of the Minister of Health because he (the minister) would not countenance such behaviour when he was Chairman of the PAC.

Several public agencies under five ministries, namely, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Employment, Labour and Manpower and Ministry of Roads and Highways appeared before the committee to answer questions relating to the 2016 audit report of the Auditor-General.

Among some of the institutions were Medical and Dental Council, Ghana Publishing Company Limited, National Film and Television Institute, National Vocational Training Institute and a host of other institutions under the Ministry of Roads and Highways.

Answering questions from the committee, Dr Eli Atikpui, Registrar of Medical and Dental Council apologised for their infractions adding that the council had dealt with most of the recommendations.

He said the procurement infraction which saw the government losing GH₵24,000 from non-VAT registered companies had been dealt with since the Council was not dealing with unregistered VAT companies.

Dr Atikpui said salary advances given to some staff who were no longer with the Council, had also been paid adding that all the recommendations had been implemented.

Mr David Asante, the Managing Director of Ghana Publishing Company said the fortune of the company was beginning to improve with some prudent measures put in place.

He said whereas, in the past the company was suffering liquidity as a result of not being competitive enough, things begun to change with investment in staff capacity building and provision of state-of-the-art machinery to meet their job targets.

Mr Samuel Nai, Rector of NAFTI said the institute’s internally generated fund was showing positive signs of supporting their work so the institution had written to the  government, through its ministry, to be weaned of government subventions.

He said their current challenge was the lack of infrastructure on campus, while the construction of the Bank of Ghana Hospital had further weakened some of the structures such as the studios.

Mr Nai said being under the Ministry of Education had helped matters since fund from GETFund had supported in the procurement of cameras which come in handy.

BY LAWRENCE MARKWEI

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