Amend Public Financial Management Act to tackle corruption – Kennedy Kankam

The Member of Parliament of Nhyiaeso constituency in the Ashanti Region,Kennedy Kankam has proposed that the Public Finance Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) be amended to allow government appointees to append signatures to monetary authorization given technocrats.

Answering questions from Kwame Adinkra on ‘Pure Morning Drive’, he said the Finance Management Act, 2016 provided a good foundation but the main issue missing in it is the provision for fiscal discipline and responsibility and hence the need to just amend.

“Kwame there are a lot of loopholes in our Financial Management Act. The public Financial Act that we claim has seen some changes still have holes punched in them; and some of us have our reservations. We’ve written a paper on it awaiting response. We need to amend the Act. Politicians can easily misappropriate govt funds with the current provisions in the Act, which will makes it difficult to fight corruption if not amended”.

He added “It will interest you to know that government appointees like Ministers of state don’t issue cheque but only authorize monies to be paid.

They give instructions through the technocrats, so it is difficult to link Ministers to some corruption cases.

Kwame, you realize that when a minister appears before the Public Accounts committee, its easier for them to disassociate themselves from certain cases – mostly the ones that had to do with misappropriation of funds”.

In 2017, the Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta disclosed that the government was going to introduce a fiscal stability and responsibility law to curtail huge budget deficits in the country.

But Nhyiaeso MP insist there must be laws that allow ministers of state and government officials to append their signature to monetary orders they give.

“There must be laws within the Act that give Ministers the opportunity to be signatories to cheques issued. That way they can’t run away from misappropriation when found culpable” he added.