CJA concerned about Parliament's inaction on corruption
March 09, 2010
Accra, March 9, GNA - The Committee for Joint Action (CJA) on Tuesday expressed concern about the inaction of Parliament towards the fight against corruption though the institution has considerable powers that could be used to check the menace.
The group said it was not enough for Parliament to hold public hearings where officials were made to answer questions on audit reports but no actions were taken against such people to deter others from engaging in similar practices.
Mr Edward Bawa, a member of the CJA, said this at a press conference in Accra on the findings contained in the 2008 Auditor General's report into the public accounts of Ghana.
He urged government to prosecute officials found culpable of misapplying state funds and take steps to seal the loopholes that enabled such reprehensible crimes to be committed against the people of Ghana.
"We insist that the laws governing the utilization of public funds must be rigorously adhered to in order to spare the long suffering masses of this country the agony of watching on helplessly as their taxes are stolen by greedy and unscrupulous officials," he said.
Mr Bawa said total irregularities in 2008 alone amounted to GH¢166.1 million, representing an increase of 177.4 per cent over that of the previous year.
He said the cash irregularities accounted for 92.8 per cent of the total financial irregularities mainly because imprest holders refused to account for those monies, absence of effective supervisory controls over revenue collection, failure of officers to obtain supporting documents for funds to be disbursed as well as the ineffectiveness of Internal Audits Units within the Ministries.
Mr Bawa said Value Added Tax (VAT) acquired on the Barnett building near Busy Internet in Accra accounted for GH¢874,154 and rehabilitated at GH¢2,387,216 million although the building had only been leased to VAT for 11 years with the possibility that the lease may not be extended.
He said three oil marketing companies which reneged on their scheduled payment plans to the tune of GH¢2,768,908 were not asked for guarantees. Though they are not paying the debts, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning is doing nothing.
Mr Bawa said contrary to regulation 14(1) of the Financial Administration Regulation, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Public Sector Development and PSI opened and operated an account at the Accra High Street Branch of Barclays Bank Ghana in October 2005.
He said GHc two billion was transferred into it from the Ministry's main account which earned an interest of GH¢7.8 million and the two billion was withdrawn but as at now the principal and the interest have not been accounted for.
Mr Bawa also catalogued a litany of other findings as to how officials charged with the responsibility of managing the nation's financial resources at various Ministries, Departments and Agencies encouraged financial irregularities.
He said in spite of the numerous exposures that the CJA had made over the years concerning similar acts in previous audit reports no efforts had been made by the relevant authorities to stem the dissipation of the nation's scarce resources.
The group called on the media and civil society organizations to intensify efforts at exposing corruption which he said, was the surest way of safeguarding the nation's resources.
GNA
TOR must tread cautiously
Chronicle Editorial
During the first quarter of this year, President Mills traveled to Nigeria to negotiate with his West African counterpart, Umaru Yar’Adua for the supply of crude oil to Ghana. Though reports that came out after the meeting suggested that a deal had been clinched, the oil never came.
As the opposition kept asking when the crude oil would finally arrive, workers of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) also joined the fray, by putting pressure on their management to secure crude oil for the refinery which had been laying idle for some months now, to resume its operations.
In response to this request, the TOR management last weekend announced that it had clinched a deal with a Nigerian company to supply crude oil to the refinery, and that the first consignment would arrive in the country on Wednesday (yesterday).
Unfortunately, the crude did not arrive on the appointed date, and when the acting Managing Director of TOR, Dr. Kwame Amporfo was questioned over the issue by Joy FM yesterday, he claimed that there had been a hitch and that the crude oil would now arrive tomorrow.
According to him, the agreement was that the crude would arrive in Ghana between Wednesday October 7th and Friday October 9th, and that they were still on course and within the range of time.
It seems to The Chronicle that the occasional shortage of petroleum products on the Ghanaian market, coupled with the pressure that have been brought to bear on TOR and government, is what has compelled the former to make panic pronouncements that is not helping their case.
Considering the criticisms that this particular deal with Nigeria to supply crude oil to Ghana had generated, we at The Chronicle do not think it was necessary for Dr. Kwame Amporfo and his management team to have called a press conference to announce that the crude would arrive in the country on Wednesday.
We think TOR should have waited for the final arrival and berthing of the ship with the products, and then called in the media to witness and report on it. If this had been done, the Refinery would have avoided what seems to be a public deceit.
The Chronicle does not think the media and Ghanaians in general would believe any new information that would be put in the public domain by TOR regarding the date for the arrival of the crude oil.
Expectations of Ghanaians about the importation of crude oil are very high, and therefore the TOR management must be very careful about the information they give to the public.
As the adage goes, action speaks louder than words. What we are now eagerly waiting for is to hear and see that TOR has finally secured its crude oil consignment for refinery, and not information about when the product will arrive.