Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA), has announced that three state institutions’ employees would be punished soon for misappropriating Covid-19 funds.
According to him, the Agency is working with the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) to expedite the prosecution process.
Dr. Oduro Osae was addressing at a public forum hosted by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition on the accountability gap in Ghana’s Covid-19 replies.
In terms of the Covid-19 expenditure audit, he said that they began receiving internal audit reports from internal auditors in 2021.
“We started reviewing them in 2021 and some of the expenditure areas were revealing. Areas where we have challenges we do a follow up. A team is sent to the field to go and validate.
“Those we think have criminal consequences, we would work with EOCO to prosecute them. I’m not allowed to indicate what we are doing or the level of prosecution but I can assure you that at the moment, we are working with EOCO to prosecute three institutions,” he disclosed.
The Minority in Parliament has introduced a Private Member’s Motion calling for an investigation of the government’s spending during the Covid-19 period.
Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader; Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, Minority Chief Whip; and Cassiel Ato Forson, Minority Spokesperson on Finance, submitted a motion to Alban Bagbin, requesting a nonpartisan investigation of the government’s 8.1 billion spending.
This motion was granted.
However, the motion was rejected by the First Deputy Speaker, who presided over House operations in the Speaker’s absence.
The Minority is now preparing to file an appeal against the rejection of their motion.
Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin explained the Majority’s opposition to the measure, stating that the auditing of the Covid spending should be left to the relevant state authorities.
Speaker Alban Bagbin voiced his displeasure with his deputy, Joesph Osei-Owusu, for rejecting the motion on Wednesday, February 23, and termed the move as illegal and unconstitutional.
Prior to this, the Minority petitioned the Auditor General to investigate government spending on food, water, and other assistance items sent to Ghanaians during the lockdown.
Mr Osei-Owusu, on the other hand, has defended his actions as legal, claiming that the Speaker’s notification to the House about his behavior is unfair to him.
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SOURCE: myjoyonline
