Socio-political non-partisan pressure group Occupy Ghana is calling for the immediate prosecution of government appointees who have committed various infractions leading to the loss of revenue to the state.
Their call comes on the back of revelations that the Auditor-General has been able to save the country a whopping 67 million Ghana Cedis emanating from disallowance and surcharges as at November 2018.
The group in a statement issued yesterday Thursday January 3, 2019 praised the Auditor-General, the Audit Service and its staff for saving the country the amount, but expressed worry at the seeming lack of interest in prosecuting those found culpable.
‘’OccupyGhana® has received and studied a copy of the first ever Special Audit Report of the Auditor-General on Disallowance and Surcharge. This is the report as at 30th November 2018, that mentions how much has been saved to the nation in Disallowances, how much has been surcharged, and how much has been recovered. We salute the Audit Service, led by the current Auditor-General for this. We are however concerned that there appears to be little effort at prosecuting those who have committed these infractions, and call upon the Attorney-General to commence prosecutions in this regard’’ the group averred.
The group added that ‘’the heart of every Ghanaian would be gladdened at the saving of the net total of GHS 5,445,676,134.53, which some government officials fraudulently claimed was owed on various government contracts, but which had been already paid. This attempt to fleece Ghana of this colossal sum was only stopped by the Auditor-General issuing Disallowances. Further, the recovery of GHS 67,137,517.86 as a result of the Auditor-General’s Surcharges and recovery efforts must be lauded by all Ghanaians. Meanwhile, there are Surcharges of almost half a billion Cedis outstanding, waiting for enforcement’’.
The group believes the report by the Auditor-general announcing the figures is also the culmination of the journey that started on 12th November 2014 when they first wrote to the Auditor-General then, demanding the exercise of the Disallowance and Surcharge powers given to that office by the Constitution.
Source: BestNewsGH.com
