The arrested officials in handcuff
The
former District Finance Officer for Sefwi Akontombra in the Western North Region,
Isaac Akowuah, and the current District Finance Officer
of the same district, James Essilfie, were arrested yesterday by the parliament
police upon the strict orders of the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee
(PAC) when they appeared before the committee.
The
Chairman of the committee, James Klutse Avedzi, directed officers of the
Parliamentary Protection Unit to arrest the two officers after they had
presented nine payment vouchers which did not tally with those that were
already before the committee.
Officials
of the Sefwi Akontombra District Assembly appeared before the committee last
Wednesday led by the District Chief Executive, Amoah Yawson, when the committee
started sitting to look into queries on the use of the District Assemblies
Common Fund by the Auditor-General in 2015 and 2016, but they could not provide
62 payment vouchers to support purchases made by the assembly amounting to GH¢126,000.
The
officials were asked to go and look for those vouchers and present them to the
committee yesterday but when the two district finance officers who were
directly involved in the payment and receipt of the vouchers appeared, they
were able to provide only nine payment vouchers amounting to GH¢120,000 out of
the 62 vouchers.
When
members of the committee took time to scrutinize those vouchers, they realized
that the vouchers did not tally with those that had been given to the PAC
members by the Office of the Auditor-General.
The
chairman, therefore, ordered the police to immediately arrest them for telling
lies to the committee and also engaging in acts that amounted to criminal
offence before the committee.
The
chairman said they were being arrested to serve as a deterrent to other
officials who would come before the committee and lie because they swear oaths
to tell the committee the sacrosanct truth.
The PAC has the powers of a High Court and can, therefore, issue arrest orders.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr