By Edzorna Mensah
The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, has instructed that two officers of the South Tongu Assembly be surcharged for failure to produce two JCR’s.
The Chairman of PAC, James Klutse Avedzi, insists that the infraction constitutes dereliction of duty on the part of the Revenue Superintendent and the Finance Officer, hence the need for them to be surcharged.
This came to light in the ongoing probe by PAC into the auditor-general’s report for the year ended 2023 on District, Municipal, Metropolitan, as well as some selected Senior High Schools from Volta, Eastern and greater Accra Regions at Ho, the Volta Regional capital.
The audit report revealed that two JCR’s could not be produced for auditing. The Assembly told the Committee that the officer in charge failed to provide the JCR’ resignation, but the Assembly declined. Officials of the Assembly opined the issue has been reported to the police. The Chairman instructed that the issue should be reported to the Economic and Organised Crime Office for her arrest.
The Chairman said, “I think that you relaxed; you didn’t take action on time; you should have caused her arrest for a long time.” He said auditors should calculate the average for the JCR’s to determine the amount involved. “We will surcharge the Revenue Superintendent and the Finance Officer for relaxing; if we do that, you will be active to do the right thing,” he stressed.
In an interview with Senior Public Affairs Officer at the end of the four-day PAC Zonal public hearing on Friday at Ho, the PAC Chairman reiterated the need for commitment on the part of the institutions cited, adding that, though there has been some improvement in terms of some of the Assemblies, these infractions could have been avoided if the Assemblies were committed. He advised Assemblies to do the right and pointed out that some of the issues are not issues that should bring them to PAC. He said issues in the SHS about non return of textbooks are not matters that should be brought to the Committee.
Additionally, he emphasised that issues about unpresented PV’s or unsupported documents at the time of the audit are done deliberately.
“On the Secondary Schools, most of the issues are about unearned salaries, people who validate teachers do not do the right thing, they don’t see the teachers available but go ahead to validate them.” He said we have asked some of them to refund the money to serve as a deterrent.
He also lamented on the growing menace in Technical Universities where people who benefit from Government scholarships refuse to come back to serve. Mr. Avedzi said PAC will provide recommendations for review of the guarantor system such that guarantors will now be made to bring a property such that when they fail to come back, government can claim the asset to defray the cost.