President
John Dramani Mahama has been cited in the Auditor-Generals report on
Public accounts of Ghana as having used his office as the vice president
in 2011 to spend $28,692 on his family while he was in South Africa.
The
Auditor-General’s report indicated that Ghana’s High commission in
Pretoria, South Africa, spent that money on the president and his family
for their transport, accommodation and repair of a vehicle while they
were in that country.
Then matter cropped up at the Public
Accounts Committee(PAC) of Parliament’s sitting yesterday when the
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hanna Tetteh, and
officials from her ministry appeared before it to respond to questions
on the 2011, 2012 and 2013 reports of the Auditor General on the various
Ghanaian missions abroad.
The Member of Parliament for Atwima
Mponua, Isaac Asiamah, who raised the issue, wanted to find out from the
minister the kind of visit the then vice president undertook with his
family that warranted the Ghanaian mission in South Africa spending that
amount on him and his family.
He also wanted to know the actual
number of family members on that trip. But the chairman of the
committee, Kwaku Agyeman –Manu, said that the report had also captured
the amount as having been settled and so there was no need to belabour
that issue.
The Atwima Mponua MP, who is a member of the Public
Accounts Committee, told daily guide that the matter of the president
being cited in the Auditor-General’s report was so important that it
could not be allowed to be swept under the carpet, especially when all
those captured in the report in one way or the other had been found
culpable of violating the relevant laws of the public financial
management and were also said to be financially indisciplined.
“For
the Auditor-General to be bold to mention the president’s name in its
report for such financial impropriety, then it means that there is
indeed something wrong somewhere and we all as Ghanaians must start
asking questions,” he said, stressing that this development could be
seen as unprecedented in the history of this country.
He said
Ghanaians must be told to ask whether the president’s trip to South
Africa which warranted that expenditure was an official trip or not and
the reason for that trip.
“Ghanaians must be told the full
details of the trip for which the money that was not officially
sanctioned for was paid,” Mr. Asiamah charged, stressing that full
details of the money refunded to the state must also be made public.
Asiamah
stressed that this is very unhealthy for the management of public
funds, adding that when such situations happen they seriously affect the
official work of Ghanaian missions abroad. |
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Source: Daily Guide |
President
John Dramani Mahama has been cited in the Auditor-Generals report on
Public accounts of Ghana as having used his office as the vice president
in 2011 to spend $28,692 on his family while he was in South Africa.
The Auditor-General’s report indicated that Ghana’s High commission
in Pretoria, South Africa, spent that money on the president and his
family for their transport, accommodation and repair of a vehicle while
they were in that country.
- See more at: http://citifmonline.com/2016/04/12/ag-cites-mahama-28000-sa-trip/#sthash.XbPGDahf.dpuf
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