Ibrahim Dey clarifies comments on PAC sitting

The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament is not having any current sittings in connection with some issues captured in the Auditor General’s report which were dealt with by the previous Parliament, until those reports have been re-laid before Parliament and properly adapted by the House.

Ranking Member of the Committee, Ibrahim Dey says it is only after those processes have been gone through that those reports could be reconsidered by PAC if it has any further need to do so.

An earlier publication by RadioXYZonline.com which we attributed to Mr Dey concerning the Committee’s work failed to clarify the contingencies upon which the PAC’s sitting on those previous reports could be possible. Any inconveniences caused Ibrahim Dey due to the unintentional omission is deeply regretted.

For the sake of clarity and avoidance of any doubt, we publish below a verbatim transcription of the earlier interview he granted our correspondent over the PAC hearings.

Kweku Sakyi Danso: Would you say you’v really tackled most of the reports that have been brought to you and you are really up to date now?

Ibrahim Dey: No no no no we are not…, even those ones, the last parliament could not all the way and work in progress, it’s so dicey. They have relay them again for us to adapt them and to relay them and to relay them means the auditor general will have to go and print the whole thing again and come and relay them. So we are talking with the Speaker. Because you know a lot of the judgment debts we haven’t finished. We were on the Woyome case and co that, we were on the CP case, we are on the, this thing, which involves Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu and rest of all, we haven’t completed all those reports.

Kweku Sakyi Danso: So does it mean you will have to invite them to come back?

Ibrahim Dey: That is the issue. That is the issue. I’m glad you have raised this issue. They have to relay the whole thing. And then the new Parliament, in other words the new PAC, will have to look at the matter and say ok, we have adapted the report of the last parliament and then we can then write the report and bring it to parliament. Or there are certain thorny issues we don’t agree, we have to call some of them to come and clear but that has not yet been done. You see and I find it very very, I think we have to do something about it.

Kweku Sakyi Danso: Did you complete work?

Ibrahim Dey: We did. We did. In fact right now we are talking with the leadership and the Speaker concerning it. I’m not a legal person but they are looking at the legal but remember every Parliament is unique by itself. It has finished another parliament has come. But I think that this sort of nature of the work should continue. It’s just like a bill. You have to relaid it again to continue with this.

Kweku Sakyi Danso: What are the indications you are getting. Is it that it will be done?

Ibrahim Dey: Yeah the Speaker is errr, he errr agreed to those issues and say that well we should go back and then see how we can do and bring it back to the, but what we’ll need to do is that it has to be relaid in parliament but that is a cost, because audit service will have to reprint the whole 275 copies again, come and relay it and then we will then look at it then it will be referred back to us but we’ll say ok the previous parliament have sat on it, this and what they have reached on it so do we continue, have you finished or we don’t agree with them.

Kweku Sakyi Danso: If you don’t agree with them, would you invite Woyome, Betty Mould Iddrisu?

Ibrahim Dey: Automatically that’s what happens; if we don’t agree with them it means we have to restart again inviting them to appear again.