General News of Wednesday, 2 August 2017
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2017-08-02
Daniel Domelevo
The Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo has stated that his office is not excluded from audits and that the department is audited every year.
He mentioned during a press briefing held in Accra that Parliament appoints auditors every year to review and access the activities of the Auditor-General’s Department after which reports are submitted to Parliament.
The Constitution states clearly that: “Parliament shall appoint auditors to audit the auditor general. Every year we are audited and our audit report goes to Parliament. Our audit reports are available and you can look for them,” he said.
However, the Supreme Court in June this year granted all the reliefs sought by pressure group, Occupy Ghana, in respect of the Auditor-General’s powers of disallowance and surcharges.
According to the Court, the Auditor-General must issue disallowance and surcharges in respect of all state monies found to have been expended contrary to law.
Background
Occupy Ghana have been waging war against the lethargic attitude of Auditor-Generals whom it accused of not applying the laws and protecting the public purse.
Every year, the Auditor-General makes serious findings of many instances of misapplication of colossal amounts by public office holders.
Sometimes the public officers make admissions before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament but none is ever held accountable or punished.
Occupy Ghana has argued strenuously that the Auditor-General has the power to disallow expenditures which are not in conformity with the law and to surcharge those responsible.
The group engaged the Auditor-General demanding him to apply the law and recover the billions that went into the drain but the then Auditor-General didn’t appear willing or capable of doing this.
The dithering of the Auditor-General compelled the pressure group to head to the highest court of the land in June last year for specific orders regarding the powers of the Auditor-General to disallow expenditures and surcharge officers found to have engaged in financial impropriety.
The court Wednesday granted all the reliefs.
It further ordered the Attorney-General to take steps to prosecute persons found to have misapplied public funds.
They believe the court’s decision will be applied to retrieve public money misappropriated by public office holders.
