32 Years on . . .Parliament yet to establish public interest committee

The immediate past Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, has called on the government to take deliberate steps to strengthen the operations of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA).

Doing so should be part of measures to help curb the recurring financial irregularities, infractions and general indiscipline on the books of public institutions, he explained in an interview with the Daily Graphic.

Dr Avedzi, who chaired the PAC for eight years, also urged Parliament to establish a Public Interest Committee to follow up on recommendations of the Auditor-General and PAC in line with Article 187 (6) of the 1992 Constitution.

Parliament has not been able to establish the committee proposed in the Constitution to follow up in the public interest for the past 32 years into the country’s fourth republican democracy.

Article 187 (5) of the Constitution mandates the Auditor-General to, within six months after the end of the immediate preceding financial year of each public accounts, submit to Parliament a report to draw attention to any irregularities in the accounts audited and to any other matter which in his opinion ought to be brought to the notice of Parliament.

Subsection six says “Parliament shall debate the report of the Auditor-General and appoint where necessary, in the public interest, a committee to deal with any matters arising from it.” 

Dr Avedzi was commenting on a story in the Monday, February 24, 2025 issue of the Daily Graphic which highlighted a decade of irregularities in the accounts of public institutions, amounting to GH¢99.57 billion loss to the state.

The chartered accountant said some of the irregularities were not just a mere misappropriation, but rather a grand theft attempt, hence the IAA needed to be adequately resourced to build technical capacity and enhance its independence.

“When strengthened, public institutions must be mandated to use the services of the internal audit unit in their establishments,” Dr Avedzi, who is now the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, stated.

Prosecute public officials

The former Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu North Constituency maintained that the government must prevail on the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to prosecute public officials found culpable of such deliberate infractions.

“I will also urge Parliament to implement Article 187(6) of the 1992 Constitution and establish the committee to follow up to ensure that if an officer is supposed to refund money the person does so.

“We have not been able to establish that committee meant to follow up in the interest of the public for the past 32 years into our democracy,” Dr Avedzi told the Daily Graphic in Accra.

Public Interest Committee

He explained that the Constitution required Parliament to debate the report of the Auditor-General and point out where necessary to the public interest committee, to deal with any matters arising from it.

“When I was the chair of PAC, the Majority Leader, then Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, pledged to establish that committee by the time my next report is released, but that committee will not be in place when my next report comes out”.

“And so anytime we debate that report, then he would pledge again that this time round, the committee would be established and that was never done,” he said.

He explained that it was the duty of the government of the day to take the initiative by working through Parliament to establish the Committee on Public Interest to help follow up on the recommendations in the reports.

Audit committee

In the absence of the committee, Dr Avedzi said the provision had been made in the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) to establish audit committees in every public institution.

He said the audit committee was given a different role from the internal audit unit of an institution.

Dr Avedzi said the duty of the audit committee was to ensure that all audit recommendations were implemented by that organisation.

“So, let’s say SEC here we have an audit committee, if the internal auditor did his internal auditing and raised issues, the audit committee here will have to ensure that the management of this organisation implements the recommendations of the internal auditor”.

“In the same way, recommendations of the external auditor which is the Audit Service, and then the recommendation of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament must be implemented by the institution in question,” he added.

Membership

With that, he said the membership of the audit committee was made up of five professionals; two of the members must come from the institution and three must come from outside the organisation.

He explained that the three people must come from the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana and the Internal Audit Agency.

“So, two people come from the Internal Audit Agency, one person from Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana make up the three plus two people here make up the five and they form the audit committee,” he explained.

“And the chairmanship of this committee must come from among the three people who are from outside because they are not part of this organisation.

If the chair is from within, there might be some conflict of interest.

“They might want to overlook certain things, but it is chaired by an outside person, so that person ensures that the management of this organisation implements the recommendations of those reports,” Dr Avedzi added.

A-G’s interest

The immediate past PAC Chairman stated that for now once the Auditor-General’s report or PAC recommendations cited somebody for prosecution, it was referred to the Office of the Attorney-General for action.

“But this is where the challenge is; the Office of the Attorney-General is part of the executive arm of government and the reports are about members of the executive arm of government”.

“Sometimes the report is even about the Office of the Attorney-General and we are asking that same body to prosecute himself or other colleagues of the executive.

That is what the challenge is and so our report never sees any serious action being taken on them,” Dr Avedzi added.