Parliament asks EC to provide proper responses to queries
Officials of the Electoral Commission (EC) last Wednesday failed to provide coherent responses to questions raised about GHc1.6 million that the commission released to its Sekondi office in 2013 for operational purposes.
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They were also unable to provide detailed answers to other financial improprieties against the commission raised in the 2014 Auditor General's Report at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sitting.
The incoherent responses compelled the PAC to suspend the sitting and give the EC two weeks to go and prepare its accounts and come back with well-prepared responses.
Intermittently, members of the PAC punched holes into the responses provided by the EC's Director of Finance, Mr Joseph Kwaku Asamoah, who was flanked by the Deputy Chairperson in charge of Corporate Affairs, Mrs Georgina Opoku Amankwa, and the Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations, Alhaji Amadu Sulley.
GH¢1.6 million palaver
According to the report, the EC headquarters released GH¢1.6 million to the commission's Sekondi office to support the operations of seven districts in the Western Region in 2013.
However, it said the headquarters had not received any returns from the Sekondi office on how the money was used.
Initially, Mr Asamoah said he did not have any documentation on the GH¢1.6 million.
He said he only had documentation on another sum of GH¢155,000.
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When the PAC members read the report again, Mr Asamoah admitted that the amount had been released but indicated that the EC was yet to get the returns on the money from the Sekondi office.
Report not read
Mrs Opoku Amankwa had earlier told the PAC that she had returned to Accra only last Tuesday and so she could not read the Auditor General's Report.
She said she was only relying on the report of the EC's Director of Finance.
EC Chairperson's absence questioned
The PAC had earlier threatened not to hold the sitting with the EC because of the absence of the Chairperson of the commission, Mrs Charlotte Osei.
The Chairman of the PAC, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said per the laws governing the PAC, the EC Chairperson was required to lead the EC's team to appear before the committee.
Mrs Opoku Amankwa told the PAC that Mrs Osei had travelled outside the country, hence her inability to appear before the committee.