Disallow and surcharge – Kwaku Azar advises Auditor-General

Prof Stephen Kwaku Asare, a D&D Fellow in Public Law and Justice at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has advised the Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, to disallow and surcharge those implicated in the report.

According to him, it will not be in the national interest for the Ghana Audit Service to merely report on the corruption taking place in public institutions without taking any action to recover funds.

Kwaku Azar, as he is known popularly, stated that the law mandates the Auditor-General to implement stringent measures that will assist the country to retrieve misappropriated or misused funds.

He is of the view that the Auditor-General should do more than just “document and memorialise” these occurrences.

Kwaku Azar observed that the Auditor-General’s report has become an “annual ritual” that reminds the citizenry of the lack of accountability by public office holders.

“He [Auditor-General] should disallow and surcharge,” he said on Joy News' 'Newsfile' programme on Saturday.

A total of ¢17.4 billion in financial irregularities have been cited in the latest Auditor-General's report submitted to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin for the 2021 financial year.

The amount was a 36% increase compared to that of 2020.

This is the conclusion reached by the Auditor-General after an audit of the accounts of at least 101 institutions.