Chairman for the Public Accounts Committee James Klutse Avedzi
Chairman for the Public Accounts Committee James Klutse Avedzi has referred the management of the Ghana Maritime Authority to the Attorney General for prosecution following some procurement breaches.
The Maritime Authority has been indicted by the Auditor General in the 2020 report over about 7 different procurement breaches.
Appearing before the committee in the company of Transport Minister Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, the management of the Authority was not asked for an explanation but straight away referred to the Attorney General’s office for sanctions as recommended by the auditors.
“It’s a straightforward issue, that you are to be sanctioned in accordance with section 92, so we are therefore referring the case to Attorney General,” Avedzi said.
There have been various infractions in expenditure by several state institutions or agencies in the latest report by the Auditor-General which captured expenses from the year 2020.
The Attorney General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, also revealed a number of illegal and corrupt activities in the government’s expenditure including COVID-19 expenditures from 2020 and 2022.
Some of the corrupt activities which were identified include payment of a total of US$607,419.02 out of US$4,049,460.12 for procurement of 26 ambulances which were not delivered, payment of unapproved ¢151,500 by the Information Ministry to its own staff as COVID-19 insurance, payment of $80m worth of vaccines by the government which was not delivered, amongst other infractions.
The report scrutinizes how monies received from the various institutions including the World Bank, AFDB, the European Union and the Contingency fund summing up to GHC21.8 billion were utilized.
Anti-corruption crusaders and some CSOs have called for the persons cited in the report to be surcharged to deter other infractions in the future.
