PAC Retrieves GHC 2m For The State

Parliament�s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has retrieved about GHC 2 million from various public institutions and individuals in the course of their work last year. The institutions include district assemblies, Senior High Schools and individuals in the country who were implicated in the Auditor General�s report. A total of GHC 1, 400, 000 was retrieved from the Senior High Schools while GHC 600,000 was also retrieved from various district assemblies. Chairman of PAC, Kwaku Agyeman Manu expressed optimism about retrieving more money from various institutions by the time its report is ready. He described the recoveries as �very significant� and expressed the hope that more retrievals will be made in 2015. Mr. Agyeman-Manu explained that aside the district assemblies and Senior High Schools, some individuals were forced to pay back monies they were receiving from government. �When we started sending letters that we were coming to sit, they started paying back these amounts that they have taken and when these were computed and quantified, we got close to about GHC 2 million,� he said. He added that prevalent issues which they uncovered were �payroll irregularities, people who had stopped working for government and they were still taking salaries.� The Public Accounts Committee is mandated to examine the audited accounts showing the appropriation of the sums granted by Parliament to meet the public expenditure of the government as presented to the House by the Auditor-General of Ghana. It consists of not more than 25 Members of Parliament (MPs) and is chaired by a Legislator who does not belong to the party which controls the Executive branch of government.