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Parliament says it must be taken
seriously
By Kweku Asare
Accra, July 5, Ghanadot -
Parliament has called on Ministries, Departments and
Agencies to sit up and take the business of Parliament
seriously otherwise it would be forced to take the step of
holding onto the approval of their financial statements that
are brought before the House.
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu,
Majority Chief Whip, was not amused that the audited reports
before the House had been put together as one document
without recourse to how their operations in each of the
years under review have been.
The Parliamentarians noted that it (Parliament) would not
take kindly to government bodies and institutions’ failure
to respond to the dictates of Parliament as it pertains to
the laying of Reports before it.
Contributing to the Audited Reports of the Ministry of
Lands, Forestry and Mines’s operations of the 2001, 2002 and
2003 submitted to the House, Mr Alban Sumani Bagbin,
Minority Leader also said it was important to know in a
timely manner how they have utilized the funds approved to
them over the period, rather than waiting for such a long
time before submitting their reports to Parliament.
He noted that it was rather odd for the Ministry, just like
other public institutions, to come out with its audited
accounts after four years.
“I call on this House to sit up and ensure that things are
done right, … and even though this goes on elsewhere, there
must be a start.”
“Here we are in 2007, looking at the Reports of 2001, 202,
2003, Mr Speaker, there is no indication in the Report as
why this is the case and the Administrator of the Stool
Lands is not even in the House.
“I want the Deputy Minister, who is here, to take these
concerns to the Minister responsible and I want them to take
us seriously.”
We ( Parliament) must also sit up and know what the money
that we approved is used for, arguing that, “ … we see
mansions and do not know how money was found to build them;
we also see palaces and there are no roads to them and
public funds for these activities must not be lost in any
form. I do not think the state is satisfied with how some of
the monies that public institutions use public funds.
He questioned why huge sums were spent by the Ministry on
sponsoring staff to schools abroad and elsewhere, noting
that even though he believes in human resource development,
“that is not how we should move forward.”
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Chief Whip again
noted that the "reports should have been separated and
addressed specifically in each of the years under review."
And that it was was pertinent for Parliament "as managers of
the public purse to know exactly what was spent in each of
the years and relate it to the following year" so as to be
able to take a decisions.
“As things stand now we have an audited report for 2001,
2002, and 2003 and even though certain activities have been
earmarked for preceding years, there is no follow up
comments on how things went in the subsequent years,” he
added.
Other members expressed similar sentiments and pressed on
Ministries and other public agencies to develop new
attitudes and approaches to ensure that the public purse is
not dissipated in ways that are not known to Parliament.
They were of the opinion that the practice where monies are
approved for use by government departments and agencies and
yet they are unable to provide responses on how the funds
have been used, either correctly or incorrectly, must be
stopped; besides reports must be on time and accountable.
They argued there was the need to ensure that the nation’s
natural resources are properly utilized and accounted for
without recourse to late and unacceptable excuses.
Financial experts Ghanadot spoke to after the discussions
were of the opinion that there should not only be more
accountability, “there must be transparency in their
operations as well.
“There can be no way where public funds approved are
utilized, but the purse holders are kept in the dark on how
it was utilized, yet are called in the end to approve extra
funds for their future use.”
The truth of the matter is that keepers of the public purse
must be up and doing and not to say that must be up and
doing. Money once lost sometimes is almost impossible to
retrieve in our part of the country. Therefore, we
(Parliament) must be close at the heels of users of public
funds and in the words of Mr Bagbin, “we must sit up” and
call all to order.
Kweku Asare, ACCRA, July 5, Ghanadot.com
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