PAC to order special audit

Middle page (Pg 20), November 12, 2007

Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
Audit amount spent on re-denomination - PAC
THE Public Accounts Committee of Parliament will order the Auditor-General to do a special auditing on the amount used by the Bank of Ghana (BOG) for the re-denomination exercise.
This follows the announcement by the Governor of the bank, Mr Paul Acquah, that $66.2 million — about GH¢62.188 million (¢621.88 billion) was used for the re-denomination exercise.
The amount used for the exercise was a subject of controversy in Parliament in May, this year, when some members of the Minority filed a motion requesting the governor to disclose how much was being spent on the exercise.
The Chairman of the PAC, Mr Samuel Sallas-Mensah told the Daily Graphic that even though the request was made before July, 2007 when the new denominations came into circulation, Mr Acquah, failed to respond to the request of the House.
He said it was unfortunate that the Governor failed to furnish Parliament with the information but rather gave it to the media after the exercise had been completed.
Mr Sallas-Mensah added that the PAC would, therefore seek for a special auditing to be done because “the exercise was special”.
It is also important for Ghanaians to know the source of the amount spent for the exercise, he stated.
“We also want to ascertain whether officials of the bank acted appropriately under the Financial Administration Act, the Financial Administration Regulation or whether they conformed to the Procurement Act”.
Mr Sallas-Mensah said Parliament has the right to know how state institutions spend funds belong to the state.
“Since we are the representatives of the people, it is our right to know how the taxpayers’ money is spent by institutions of the state”, he said.