President Mahama has expressed his distaste for the slow pace of prosecution involving public servants implicated in the misuse of state funds. He referred to the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) regular sittings to review reports presented by the Auditor-General on the public accounts of Ghana.

Over the years, despite numerous revelations of embezzlement, the President remains unsettled that many of the culprits continue to walk free.

Speaking at the opening of the 12th Annual Conference of Chairpersons of Governing Boards and Councils, Chief Directors, and Chief Executives of the Public Service of Ghana, held in Ho, the Volta Regional capital, on Wednesday, October 8, he urged stakeholders to fast-track the prosecution of public officials implicated in financial misconduct.

He said this would serve as a strong deterrent to prospective offenders.

In light of this, his office will engage the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, and other relevant stakeholders to devise strategies to ensure swift punishment for those responsible for the misuse of public funds.

“Recently, I have been watching the Public Accounts Committee, and it’s so pathetic. Why must we, every year, congregate at the Public Accounts Committee, and then you hear all kinds of atrocious things, recklessness with public funds and resources?

“And so, I have a meeting on Thursday with the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, and others to find a final solution to this Auditor-General’s report, that persons who are found guilty of infractions, or do not follow due procedure, or lead to loss of public resources, must have a fast-track process to Nsawam; fast track, before you see, you are at Nsawam.

Until we do that, until there’s a deterrent, we are going to come every year; they say total misappropriation and infractions found out by the Auditor-General are about 15 million cedis. Can you imagine what 15 million could do? And so, we are going to have a meeting,” he stated.

He addressed the lack of full implementation of the committee, which charges the Audit Report Implementation Committees (ARICs) to follow up and ensure that due penalties are meted out to corrupt government officials following investigations by the PAC. However, he admitted that there was a genuine challenge that had inhibited the effective enforcement of these provisions, leading to persistent impunity in the misuse of public funds.

"We haven’t fully implemented the Constitution. There’s a part of the Constitution that says after the Public Accounts Committee has had its say on the Auditor-General’s report, Parliament must set up a committee. What we don’t know is whether it should be a parliamentary committee or a committee necessarily made up of parliamentarians to implement the findings of the Auditor-General.

Right now, what we use is the ARICs; every department is supposed to set up an ARIC, but once they have come from the Public Accounts Committee, nobody follows up on the recommendations that were given. So, Audit Report Implementation Committees are not working.

We must find a way to create a deterrent so that they will be held responsible for the things they do. They will continue to do the same thing if not held accountable," Mahama said.

About PAC

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Ghana was established under Article 103 of the 1992 Constitution and formally constituted as part of Parliament’s Standing Committees. It has existed since the First Parliament of the Fourth Republic, which began in January 1993.

Its mandate is to review reports presented by the Auditor-General on public accounts of Ghana, to summon ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs), and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to explain financial infractions and irregularities, and sometimes suggest sanctions, recoveries, and referrals for prosecution.

However, since its establishment, PAC has reportedly had no documented record of ensuring the prosecution, and in other cases, the imprisonment of culprits, though its recommendations can trigger EOCO investigations or Attorney-General action.

Over the years, the Committee has engaged several public institutions and heads of these institutions over reported financial irregularities, but little to no penalties have been documented, particularly to serve as a deterrent. It will be recalled that in 2017, PAC recommended the prosecution of officials at the National Sports Authority for misappropriating funds, but no confirmed convictions followed.

In a separate incident in 2021, the committee traced non-existent staff under GETFund and MASLOC, yet again, no jail terms were recorded.

In 2023, PAC recovered GH₵12.9 million, but this was through repayments, not criminal penalties.

Meanwhile, more than GH¢12.9 billion in misappropriated public funds has been retrieved following a collaboration between PAC and the Auditor-General’s Department.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, October 1, Chairperson of PAC, Abena Osei-Asare, attributed the development to the collective efforts between the Auditor-General’s Department and PAC.

“One thing I am clear about is that what we are doing is yielding positive results. We have a report we will look at. Per the work of the Public Accounts Committee, and with the support of the Auditor-General, we have been able to retrieve GH¢12.9 billion. There is a whole report on that which we will be sharing with the public at the right time,” she said.

According to her, the Committee will make the report's details public at the appropriate time. The Committee is scheduled to resume its sittings on Monday, October 27. Various ministries, departments, and agencies have been interrogated by PAC in recent weeks to address infractions highlighted in the 2024 Auditor-General’s Report.

Recently, the Director of Administration at Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), Dr Emmanuel Sena Kwasi Donkor, appeared before PAC after the AG’s report suggested that the hospital paid salaries amounting to GHS 1,449,000 to a deceased staff member over a period of 26 months.

Dr Donkor affirmed the report, adding that the hospital has so far recovered GHS303,558.68 of the total amount. He explained that the banks previously handling the transactions had indicated through letters that they had ceased processing them.

“We were able to recover some amounts. Before we got here, we had received letters from some banks stating that they had stopped transferring the funds to the government chest,” Dr Donkor told the Committee.

He further urged Parliament to intervene and help the hospital recover the remaining funds. “Maybe at the end of this session, we will make a prayer to this House for the House to make an order directing those banks to transfer,” he said.

Dr Donkor revealed that his outfit has submitted the names of the individuals implicated in the act to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for recovery. “EOCO has written back requesting the files of the people involved, and we have submitted them,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ranking Member Samuel Atta-Mills raised serious concerns regarding the issue. “Habib Napare – date of separation was 2022. This guy had died. Didn’t you go to the funeral? And you validated this dead person for 26 months? And now you are coming to tell Parliament to do what?” Atta-Mills asked sharply.

In the meantime, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has released a fifty-page report covering investigations and prosecutions carried out between January 1 and July 31 this year.