ENSURING TRANSPARENCY IN PUBLIC FINANCE

INTERESTING revelations are emerging from the ongoing public sittings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament about the way state institutions are run in this country.
While some of these disclosures have only come to confirm already held perceptions about state and public institutions, others have challenged earlier notions and established new ones.
The general effect, however, is that over the years, the public sittings of the PAC have become popular and effective vehicles through which the public gets an insight into the management (or mismanagement) of our public institutions.
With emphasis on financial administration, record keeping and auditing, the platform has provided those institutions whose operations fall within the ambit of the Auditor-General to be accountable to Members of Parliament and the masses they represent.
As effective as this has been in the national endeavour to improve accountability and transparency in governance, there is one observation which the DAILY GRAPHIC believes, if addressed, will further enhance the role of the PAC in its efforts to deal with some of the systemic hurdles being exposed.
It has to do with the timing of the reports which form the basis of the interrogation.
At the current sitting, the Auditor-General’s Report being discussed is for the 2004/2005 fiscal year, a clear five or six years late and when most of the key decision takers then may not be those dealing with the issues now.
We are not in a position now to tell whether the delay was caused by the Auditor-General or the legislators. But it is our view that a 2004 action being discussed in 2010 is bound to lose some of the essential personalities and elements that would otherwise have made the issues involved more relevant.
Although we are not in a position to apportion blame, the Constitution states in clear terms in Article 187 Clause 5 when the report on the public accounts of Ghana should be presented to Parliament.
It states, “The Auditor-General shall, within six months after the end of the immediately preceding year to which each of the accounts mentioned in Clause (2) of this article relates, submit his report to Parliament and shall, in that report, 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.”
Some time ago, the work of the PAC was stalled when the authority of the former Auditor-General was challenged.
The DAILY GRAPHIC thinks that now that the issue has been addressed with the appointment of an acting Auditor-General, the audit of public accounts will be sped up to bring the accounts of state institutions up to date.
We urge the Auditor-General to accord this exercise the needed attention to achieve transparency in the management of public accounts in the country.