The Member of Parliament for Manhyia South, Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, has raised concerns over the credibility of a report presented to Parliament which was purported to be from the Ghana Audit Service.
According to the MP, the statement read by the Deputy Finance Minister in the House did not provide any clear indication that it was drawn directly from the Auditor-General’s report.
In an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Tuesday, he described the presentation as “extremely meagre”, noting that the actual contents of the report were not made known to members of the House.
“A report supposedly by the Auditor General was presented to the House. What the Minister was reading – there was no evidence that it was coming from the report.”
He explained that although the minister indicated that a private auditing firm had been engaged by the government to conduct the work, the document read in Parliament appeared to be a typed statement rather than the official audit report itself.
Mr Baffour Awuah stressed that their concerns were not about defending anyone involved in the matter but about ensuring that proper constitutional procedures were followed.
Citing the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, particularly Article 187 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, he noted that the law requires the Auditor-General’s report to be formally presented to Parliament for debate.
He explained that once such a report is laid before the House, it must be debated and subsequently referred to a committee for further investigation and the making of appropriate findings.
According to him, the statement read by the minister did not make any reference to specific pages or sections of the report, raising doubts about whether the claims made in the presentation were actually contained in the audit findings.
“As we speak, we do not know whether what he was saying is actually captured in the report,” the MP said, adding that the document presented appeared to merely allude to alleged losses without providing verifiable references to the official audit document.
He maintained that for transparency and accountability, Parliament must be presented with the actual report of the Auditor-General as required by law.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com