A tense moment erupted during the Public Accounts Committee sitting when Chairperson Abena Osei Asare sharply confronted the Chief Executive Officer of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Julius Neequaye Kotey, over privacy concerns tied to the authority’s proposed digital number plate system.

The exchange followed the DVLA boss’s explanation that the new plates would contain Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips to boost security and make it difficult for outsiders to tamper with or duplicate.

Mrs. Osei Asare, however, raised concerns about whether the new plates would display vehicle owners’ surnames, warning that such information could expose personal data.

In response, Mr. Kotey said the DVLA would comply with Ghana’s Data Protection Law, noting that the system would only digitalize existing information without changing its basic format.

When pressed for a clear answer on whether names would appear, he replied, “It depends on what the law says; we’ll go by it.”

That response immediately drew a sharp reaction from the PAC Chair, who retorted, “You don’t tell me it depends on what the law says. You are doing it, so you should be able to tell us what the law says. I’m asking a specific question, is it going to have the user’s surname on the number plate?”

Mr. Kotey later clarified that names do not appear on standard number plates, explaining that only personalized plates bear such identifiers.

The Chair, however, maintained that the Committee’s inquiries were in the public interest and aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability in the rollout of the new digital number plate system.

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

summons ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs), and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to explain financial infractions and irregularities, and sometimes suggests 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 in their respective businesses, but little to no show of penalties have been documented, particularly to serve as a deterrent to others. It will be recalled that in 2017, PAC recommended prosecution of officials at the National Sports Authority for misappropriating funds, but no confirmed convictions followed.

Also, in a separate incident, the committee in 2021 traced non-existent staff under GETFund and MASLOC, but again, no jail terms have been recorded so far.

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 the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Auditor-General’s (A-G) Department.

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

“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 to address infractions highlighted in the 2024 Auditor-General’s Report have been interrogated by PAC in recent weeks.

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

Dr Emmanuel Sena Kwasi 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, through a letter, indicated 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 has 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," he added. 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.