Punish those fleecing the country

Ghana has taken long strides in the quest to reach lower middle-income status following very exacting economic policies that were undertaken in the bid to place the economy on a sound footing.

At a certain point in time, the country had to submit to the heavily indebted poor country (HIPC) initiative under which some debts that it owed were written off.

When we went HIPC, hopes were that a new era of less indebtedness had been born and that we had been given the opportunity to start afresh.

The lesson we, as a nation, should have learnt was ensure that the national purse was managed prudently at every level of national endeavour in order that we would never return to HIPC.

But experiences over the years continue to show that that has not been the case, with our national debt stock appreciating year after year.

This has given cause for some austere economic measures being deployed to cut down on spending and wastage in the system.

But what the Daily Graphic finds befuddling is that year after year, reports by the Auditor-General continue to indict a number of state institutions for financial irregularities. The most worrying trend is that often those acts are repeated in the ensuing year in a manner that smacks of impudence.

We recently carried a number of stories on financial irregularities involving state institutions based on a report of the Auditor-General for the 2013-2014 period.

The irregularities cover outstanding debts, loans and recoverable charges, cash, payroll, procurement, tax, store and contract.

In the words of the Auditor-General, “These are the result of systemic weaknesses that have persisted over time and other breakdowns in internal controls.”

Clearly, the people of Ghana, particularly formal sector workers, who religiously honour their tax obligations at the end of every month, will not be happy that after they sweat and toil to pay their taxes, the money they contribute to the national purse goes to waste as a result of systemic weaknesses and breakdowns in internal controls.

While the Daily Graphic remains appreciative of the efforts the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament is making to look into some of these revelations of financial imprudence, the time has come for the whip to be applied where necessary.

Those who fall foul of the various financial laws and the procurement regime, apart from being asked to repay or return whatever might have been misappropriated, should be punished to serve as a deterrent to future errants.

But beyond this, we need to strengthen our financial control mechanisms to ensure that such irregularities are anticipated and addressed proactively, so that we do not wait for forensic audits to unveil them.