‘CJA must gets their facts right’

Page 15, Nov 9, 2007

Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Government’s Spokesperson on Finance, Mr Kwaku Kwarteng, has said that although the Socialist Forum of Ghana has the right to comment on matters of national interest, it ought to understand that freedom of expression has to be exercised responsibly.
“The rush to comment on matters without first learning of the relevant facts and background information is reckless and unhelpful”, he said.
Mr Kwarteng was reacting to a publication in the November 5, 2007 issue of Daily Graphic under the headline “Looting of State Resources”.
He said there had not been a virtual breakdown of national institutions responsible for ensuring accountability as the group sought to suggest.
Mr Kwarteng said the public sittings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament had not revealed that previous effective internal controls had now broken down.
“What the open sittings of the PAC have revealed is an old challenge confronting us to establish an effective system of internal controls in the public finance management”, he stressed.
Mr Kwarteng said that although the establishment of the public services was good, “ we don’t seem to have been able to develop within it an effective system of controls to maximise our benefits from our scarce resources”.
“That challenge has always been there. And it is the responsibility of all of us, including the Socialist Forum, to acquaint ourselves with the difficulties of that challenge and, like others are doing, put forward constructive ways to overcome them, “ he said.
He said a glance at any of the reports on public finance management since independence would have shown that most of the weaknesses the country had to deal with today were not new, adding that the statement that the revelations at the public hearings on the Auditor-General’s report were the result of the break-down of internal controls under the present government was mischievous and incorrect.
Mr Kwarteng added that it was not as though the present government had done nothing about the situation it inherited, and explained that on assuming office, the government, fully aware of this old challenge, took steps to strengthen internal controls in public finances through the enactment of the Financial Administration Act, the Public Procurement Act and the Internal Audit Agency Act in 2004.
He said the Financial Administration Act required every ministry, department or agency (MDA) to set up an Audit Report Implementation Committee (ARIC) to ensure the implementation of all audit reports concerning the individual MDAs.
“The government sees the open hearings on the Auditor-General’s report and the interest the public has shown in the exercise as part of the fight against corruption. We will continue to lend our support to the process, ” he emphasised
On resource allocation to state agencies,Mr Kwarteng said that in the 2007 Budget year for instance, the total request by the various ministries, departments and agencies (including our good governance institutions) came to ¢100 trillion.
The total projected revenue and external inflows, he said was about ¢54 trillion, adding that the shortfall of ¢46 trillion had to be managed and the way to do that was to set budget ceilings so that every state institution could get its equitable share of available resources.
He said the ceilings were not exclusive to the country’s accountability or good governance institutions as the Socialist Forum believed.
“There is no virtue in putting such statements into public discussions without revealing the said evidence. Issues of national interest, especially where it is believed that national resources are being looted, should be treated more seriously”, he said.