PAC, police hunt for auctioneer

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Ghana Police Service are on the hunt for an auctioneer who failed to account for the disposal of government vehicles totalling GHS30,000.

This was uncovered in the 2015 Auditor General’s report. The report uncovered that the said auctioneer, with Shelter Mart, after selling the vehicles belonging to the Ghana Health Service, only accounted for GHS9,500 cedis out of the realised GHS44,000.

Making an appearance before the PAC on Thursday 27 April, Director in charge of Health Administration and Support Services at the Ghana Health Service, Kofi Opoku, explained that the matter had been reported to the Ministries Police Station after several attempts to recover the money proved futile.

He also told the committee that the said auctioneer was recuperating at a health facility in the Volta Region.

Meanwhile, Chairman of PAC, James Klutse Avedzi, has lauded the efforts of the committee in retrieving monies owed the state.

Speaking to Class News’ parliamentary correspondent Ekow Annan, he said despite criticisms that the committee is a waste of time, its work had already yielded positive results for the state.

“About GHS61,800 was paid by the Ghana Health Service to the non-tax revenue account of the Bank of Ghana for Ghana. This is because the Public Accounts Committee had invited the Ghana Health Service to appear before the committee to respond to issues on the disposal or auction of government vehicles,” he stated.

“They were keeping that money in their accounts and for the fact that we had invited them, they quickly organised money and paid to government. So this is one of the success stories that we’ve been saying that Ghanaians don’t know what has been the success story of the Public Accounts Committee’s public hearing.”

The Ketu North legislator said the committee would like to bring to the attention of Ghanaians that their work was yielding good and positive results.

He disclosed that the Ministry of Health would be made to pay interest on the GHS61,800 they kept sitting in their accounts for the two or three years.