The Public Accounts Committee (PIAC) has ordered the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition to arrange for the arrest of former staff member Ms. Yaa Serwaa Gyan, who is said to have absconded after taking a fully paid study leave.

Nana Yaa Serwaa Gyan has been captured in the Auditor General's report to have been granted study leave with pay amounting to over one hundred and twenty thousand Ghana cedis with the promise to return and serve a bond term.

The report, however, stated that she failed to return and has since vacated her post.

Consequently, Ranking Member on the Public Accounts Committee, Samuel Atta Mills, has asked the Ministry of Energy to join forces with the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the police for Ms Gyan’s arrest.

“Get the police. Get the foreign affairs also and let them know. She will probably go and renew her passport. And they will let her know that she owes this amount. Get the police involved. The government cannot pay for people to go for study leave and then when they finish, they abscond."

"That is not fair, and the guarantor over here too let the police visit them. Let the police visit his house. You have the number. You have his name, and I am sure you have more information on the form that the guarantor signed. If I go to guarantee for somebody, make sure that person is going to pay. That is what we call corruption.It is not only when they hear corruption it is politicians. Is that man a politician? Is he a member of parliament? Is he a government appointee? Look at what he is doing,” Mr Mills stated.

He gave the Energy Ministry a thirty-day ultimatum to deliver on Ms. Gyan’s arrest.

“Get the police involved and let the committee know within thirty days,” Mr Samuel Atta Mills told the Energy Ministry, who were responding to queries during the PIAC sitting.

The Energy Ministry had earlier indicated in the meeting that, “Our checks show that she left the country about more than a year ago… we are told she has gone to the US.”

In a similar event, the Public Accounts Committee instructed the Office of the Head of the Civil Service to refund GHS175,000 to the Auditor-General’s recovery account within a month.

The directive was issued because the Civil Service Training Centre in Accra, overseen by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service (OHCS), could not provide documentation for the said amount during a 2024 audit.

"We will insist on the recovery. We looked at the documents that they provided, and yes, they acquitted payments, but they did not provide those documents at the time they were given extra time to do so," Mr Osei-Asare said.

The committee is examining the 2024 Auditor-General’s Report, including the infractions of the OHCS as highlighted in the report.

Mrs Osei-Asare, who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Atiwa East in the Eastern Region, urged the OHCS to put in place the necessary measures to ensure that the infractions of failure to show documentation did not recur during the next audit.

“Failure to show documentation runs through all the infractions you have been cited for," she said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been cited before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament for alleged financial mismanagement, including irregular salary payments and imprests.

The Auditor-General's report has it that three Foreign Service Officers at the Abuja mission received unearned salaries. At the Ankara mission, 19 personnel together with the former head of the mission, received unearned imprests, amounting to €16,226, which has since been repaid.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr James Gyekye Quayson, led the ministry's defence before the committee on Tuesday in Parliament House, Accra.

A revelation which came during the public hearing.

Further, per the report, "The sum of $5,800 used to purchase a MacBook Air laptop and three Samsung S10 phones by the former Head of Mission for Malabo, Mrs Esther Dzifa-Ofori, remains unaccounted for."

Appearing before PAC, Ambassador Ramses J. Cleland, the Chief Director of the Ministry, told the Committee he had reached out to Mrs Dzifa-Ofori, who is currently out of Ghana.

The Auditor-General's report also revealed embezzlement in the Prague Mission, where a former accountant deducted monies from home-based officers into a euro account.

The PAC has raised concerns over the ministry's failure to account for the funds used to purchase electronic devices and the lack of transparency in its financial dealings.

Mr Samuel Atta Mills, the Ranking Member of PAC, emphasized the need for the ministry to take immediate action to address these issues and prevent similar infractions in the future.

The PAC of Parliament, chaired by Madam Abena Osei Asare, the New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Atiwa East, is conducting a public hearing commencing Tuesday, August 19, to Tuesday, August 26, to review the Auditor-General's report on Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) for December 31, 2024.

At Monday’s sitting, institutions that appeared before the committee included the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and the Office of the Head of Civil Service.

Proceedings opened with a moment of silence in honour of the late Environment Minister, Alhaji Dr Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, who, together with seven others, lost their lives in a helicopter crash two weeks ago.

He previously served as a member of PAC in the Eighth Parliament.

Over the six-day public hearing, the committee will scrutinise the Auditor-General's report, which points to critical concerns such as Ghana’s public debt as well as deficiencies in financial reporting and asset management.