Save the public purse!

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament continues with its perennial task of scrutinising the public accounts of the Republic of Ghana.

Last Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration took its turn at the hearing, during which the activities of fake recruitment agencies were made known.

The PAC was told that the government spent $5,839.87 on the repatriation of some Ghanaian footballers who had been stranded in Tehran, Iran, in July and August 2013.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Roads and Highways appeared before the committee to explain the basis for the payment of salaries running into thousands of Ghana cedis to workers who had gone on retirement, left the job or died.

The stories told at previous sittings of the PAC expose the reckless dissipation of the public purse.

This apparent lack of control over the taxpayers’ money happens every year, with the culprits being left to go scot free.

The Legislature or Parliament is clothed with adequate powers to bring those who dissipate public resources to book because, as part of their mandate, Members of Parliament (MPs) are empowered to hold the purse string of the government.

Without their mandate, the government cannot spend a pesewa from the Consolidated Fund without the passage of the Appropriation Bill.

Also, the government cannot impose taxes or take loans without the approval of Parliament.

Sad to say, though, that it appears the level of misappropriation of public funds by public officials shows that the taxpayer or the ordinary people are being taken for granted.

Ministers of State and their technocrats appear before the PAC annually to attempt to rationalise or explain away the virtual looting of the state coffers by our public officials.

What is happening in our ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and, indeed, the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) also shows the breakdown of supervision on the part of even the Auditor-General’s Department.

We know the PAC has not got prosecutorial powers but Parliament has powers to deny any MMDA its budgetary allocation because that assembly could not account for what was given it previously.

The Daily Graphic urges the state apparatus to bring public officials who are pocketing public funds to book to serve as a deterrent to those who intend to do likewise.

The Attorney-General, at one stage, was directed to prosecute those who had embezzled public funds, but here again action is slow, emboldening the die-hards to continue to fleece the public purse.

In order not to make mockery of ourselves and render the work of the PAC of no effect or at best an organised waste of time, we as a people, should let the axe fall on those who steal public funds.

The naming and shaming at the PAC public hearing is not serving its purpose of making misappropriation a risky enterprise.

The Daily Graphic calls for action from the state to protect the public purse for the public good.