Use Auditor General’s Report To End Corruption-Pentecostal Council To OSP
The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) has suggested to the Office of the Special Prosecutor to make good use of the auditor general’s reports to effectively fight corruption in Ghana.
The council, after deliberations at its 2022 conference of heads of churches and organisations, bemoaned the increasing cases of corruption and mismanagement of public funds by metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies and state-owned enterprises as revealed by the 2020 Auditor General’s report.
According to the Pentecostal Council, the worrying trend of corrupt practices in the AG’s annual reports should prompt the special prosecutor to take a keen interest in dealing with the canker.
More taxes, zero corruption
“While Ghanaians are being called upon to pay more taxes to facilitate development, we have public officers embezzling, misapplying and misappropriating public funds through various corrupt activities causing the state to lose billions of Ghana Cedis, with most culprits going unpunished over the years.”
Call to action
“We, therefore, call on the Office of the Special Prosecutor to take a keen interest in the reports of the Auditor-General to save this country from the brink of social upheavals.
“…We reaffirm our strong belief in the Ghanaian through the Church of Jesus Christ, to rise once again to the challenges of nation-building, urging all to eschew all forms of negative attitudes that drawback national progress but instilling in us the sense of patriotism.”
Go after stolen State funds
OccupyGhana, a leading Ghanaian pressure group, on 5 February 2022, issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Auditor-General to go after state funds recorded in the 2019 and 2020 audit reports as having been misused, or risk being sued.
OccupyGhana in their statement said, “if we are not assured of any action being taken by your office on this action within the next seven (7) days, we will proceed with legal action including sending a petition to the Right To Information (RTI) Commission for you to provide information to us on your compliance or otherwise with the mandatory provisions of the Constitution and its demand that you disallow and surcharge the relevant persons with (i) any illegal expenditures, (ii) amounts not duly brought into account, and (iii) the amounts of all losses or deficiencies arising from negligence or misconduct.”
Nicholas Brown