By Roberta Gayode Modin
Former Auditor General, Daniel Yao Domelevo has stated that the mandate of the Public Accounts Committee should not be extended to enable them to arrest and prosecute corrupt public office holders.
According to him, there are many institutions already in existence with the constitutional mandate to arrest and prosecute culpable public servants. However, many are unable to live up to expectations.
“There are institutions that have already been assigned these responsibilities. One of those institutions is the Office of the Special Prosecutor. We have the Attorney General and the Economic and Organized Crime Office,” he said.
He added that an extension of the powers of the Public Account Committee will result in ” trying to solve a problem by creating another problem.”
“In Ghana what happens is that if Daniel is not doing his job well we bring in John. If Daniel and John are not doing their jobs well, we bring in Moses instead of empowering the people and tasking them to do what is expected of them. So I don’t believe that we should extend prosecutorial powers to the Public Account Committee. What they are doing is enough and they should refer their findings to the Attorney General “,he explained in a Zoom interview on Metro TV.
Mr. Domelovo made this statement at the back of concerns raised by Ghanaians, questioning the efficiency of the Public Account Committee.
He also argued that “if everyone is doing his work, we don’t have to continue recreating new institutions upon institutions. That has led to the Public sector being too heavy.”
