By: Rebecca Ekpe
”SOE’s are critical to Ghana’s economy, infact such levels of infractions should not be tolerated,” Minister for Public Enterprises, Joseph Cudjoe made this point while speaking to Journalists in Accra on the 2021 Auditor General’s Report which had 17.4 Billion Cedis flagged as Infractions of Specified Entities, ”and this is a call to action”, Mr. Cudjoe posited.
The Public Enterprises Minister said sanctions would be meted out to entities that fail to comply with recommendations to remedy Audit queries.
”Among the sanctions would be the withholding of budgetary releases as a punitive measure for non-compliance”, he stated.
Mr. Cudjoe encouraged the Chief Executive Officers, CEO’s and Chairpersons of Boards of Specified Entities to ”apprise themselves of the recommendations and implement them to the latter”.
Discussions were held with the Director General of the State Interest and Governance Authority, SIGA, Ambassador Edward Boateng, overseeing Ghana’s interests in Specified Entities on the way forward according to the Public Enterprises Minister.
He noted that if there is no commitment on the part of the parties to implement the recommendations, all efforts would come to futility.
- Some of the infractions and malfeasance flagged in the 2021 Audit Report include;
The lack of Monitoring and Supervision by CEO’s and Finance Heads. - Procurement irregularities.
- Misappropriation and Misapplication.
- Lack of Risk Management, and
- Late Release of Subventions.
The Technical Team comprising professionals from SIGA, Auditor General’s Office and the Public Enterprises Secretariat who investigated the infractions of Specified Entities cited in the 2021 Audit Report recommended among other things, that the Specified Entities CEOs should endeavour to read and prepare Audit Management Reports to propel compliance with Audit recommendations.
