Members of the Public accounts committee were at loggerheads today at the Committee's sitting over the demeanour of an auctioneer of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
The PAC members’ attention were drawn to some unpleasant discussions on going on social media by MP for Ningo-Prampram, Sam George, about the reaction of the auctioneer, Alex Adjei, to some questions and submissions made by the members of the Committee.
According to Sam George, the behaviour of the auctioneer could influence the views and perception of the public about the commission since it was carried on live television.
“If you look at the demeanour of the Minister, Chief Director and Director of Agric Engineering, from the onset they admitted to some institutional wrongdoing and plead to be treated with mercy and they’ve even gone ahead to let us know measures they have taken not to repeat same. Same cannot be said for the auctioneer who has being caught on live television and people are making comments about the work of this committee that we are treating him with kids’ gloves because he’s been captured on live TV laughing at some of the questions that we have asked”
However reacting to the concerns raised by Sam George, Chairman of the Committee, James Avedzi, explained that the Committee is limited in what it can do to him within the stipulated time.
He noted that the committee doesn’t have prosecuting powers to sanction the auctioneer for misconducting himself but can make their dissent reflect in the report that will be presented by the committee.
“I don’t know whether they are expecting that we call the police to come pick the man here for them to know we are doing proper work, no! We are operating under rules we are operating under mandates. As I said earlier on, we have powers of a high court, we don’t have powers to prosecute”
The auctioneer has been indicted by the Auditor General’s report for some financial malfeasance in the auctioning of some vehicles of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the 2015 Auditor General’s report.
The committee begun sitting Tuesday with the Bank of Ghana first to appear before them.
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