President John Dramani Mahama has called for a quicker way to punish persons who are found guilty of various infractions in the Auditor-General’s report.
The report has over the years indicted persons for various infractions and financial losses to the state.
Speaking at the 12th Annual Governing Boards and Chief Directors and executives conference in Ho on Wednesday, October 8, 2025, President Mahama explained that until there’s a stricter deterrence measure, the country will continue to record these misappropriations for a long time.
persons who infract, are found guilty of infractions or do not follow due procedure or lead
to loss of public resources, we must have a fast-track process to Nsawam. Fast
track, before you see you are in Nsawam, six months, you know, until we do that, until there’s deterrence, we’re
going to come every year and they say total misappropriation and infractions
found out by the Auditor-General is about GHC15 billion,” he bemoaned.
He noted that, “…if we save GHC 15 billion can you imagine what it could do, you know? And so we’re going to have a meeting, we’re going to bring some, we’ve not fully implemented the constitutional provision. There’s a part of the provision that says after the Public Accounts Committee has sat on the Auditor-General’s report, Parliament must set up a committee. What we don’t know is whether it should be a parliamentary committee or it’s a committee not necessarily made of parliamentarians to implement the findings of the Auditor General.”
President John Mahama indicated that he will hold a crunch meeting with the Auditor-General, Chief Justice and the Attorney-General on Thursday, October 9 to discuss deterrent measures to curb the financial irregularities recorded in the Auditor-General’s report on yearly basis.
The President said the whip must be cracked on some of these issues.
Recently I’ve been watching the Public Accounts Committee and it’s so pathetic,
you know, why must we every year congregate at the Public Accounts Committee and then you hear all
kinds of atrocious, you know, things. I mean recklessness with public funds and resources.
“And so I have a meeting on Thursday with the Chief Justice, the Attorney-General and
others to find a final solution to this Auditor General’s report,” he said.
President Mahama said the existing measures to curb these infractions are not biting enough.
“Right now, what we use is the ARICs (Audit Report Implementation Committee) and every department is supposed to set up an ARIC. But once they’ve come from the Public Accounts Committee, virtually nobody follows up on the recommendations that were given. And so the Audit Reports Implementation Committees are not working,” he lamented.
“And so we must find a way where we are able to create deterrence. Until people know that you can be held responsible for these things that you do. They’ll continue to do the same thing. And so after Thursday, I’m sure we’ll come up with some way where persons who are culpable of misusing the resources of the people will be held to account so that others do not follow suit,” he declared.
Source:Lovinghananews.com
