Heads of public institutions are advised to ensure to use government funds for its intended purpose.
According to the Vice Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, Samuel Atta -Mills will ensure that certain infractions which hitherto will occur are corrected.
He added that corruption doesn’t pay hence they must pay attention to government money and spend it judiciously.
He said this at the opening of a 6-day public hearing of the Public Account Committee (PAC) in Takoradi to consider the Auditor General’s Report referred to the Committee.
Reports from the Auditors to be taken into consideration are on the public Account of the Polytechnics, Management of utilization of District Assemblies common fund, and other statutory funds for the year ended December 31 2019 amongst others for all district Assemblies in the Western North, Western and Central Regions.
Vice Chairman mentioned unsupported pay vouchers and unearned salaries are some issues considered by the committee from about four institutions.
“Some of the key issues were unsupported documents, pay rates, unearned salaries and a few others from just about 4 or 5 institutions. These were procurement irregularities and when we don’t have competitive procurements we’ll recommend you to the Attorney General to prosecute you, and make sure you follow the rules and regulations of procurement,” He said.
He noted that the committee has so far seen about 18 institutions from the regions they have visited that have had issues regarding procurement.
A Ranking Member of the Committee, Okyere Agyekum said, heads of institutions who default in terms of procurement irregularities will be referred to the Attorney-General for prosecution as issues related to procurement are becoming endemic.
” It looks like the procurement issue is becoming endemic and that is why we have taken the stance that this time around, we will recommend for those who have gone against the procurement laws to be prosecuted. We are hoping that it will then bring down the level of procurement infractions,” He mentioned.
He added that doing so will help salvage issues related to procurement.
For his part, the Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere says, the proceedings by the Committee will in a way serve as a deterrent to others.
He added that the proceedings bring about justice, and called for institutions of mechanism to ensure that common infractions that normally occur will be dealt with even before it happens.
He further called on the Accountant General to allow the district Assemblies to recruit their own Accountant.
He said transferring Accountants from one district to another due to mistakes does not help.
Some institutions that appeared before the committee were the Takoradi and Cape Coast Technical Universities as well as some Training Colleges in the Western, Western North and Central Regions.
