The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has tasked the Auditor General to pull down its publication on the Covid-19 audit on its website.
According to the AG, the publication of the audit deemed “premature” will “grossly undermine” parliament scrutiny since it has not completed consideration on the matter.
Godfred Dame in a letter addressed to A-G Johnson Akuamoah-Asiedu, said he observe that the report of the special audit on the government’s COVID-19 transactions has been published on the website of the Audit Service but does not auger well.
“In light of the constitutional provisions pertaining to the duty of the Auditor-General after the preparation of audit reports, I consider a publication of the COVID-19 audit report or indeed any audit report particularly when same has not been either considered by Parliament or referred to a committee of Parliament, premature.
I am mindful of the provision in section 23 of Act 584 which seems to mandate a publication of the reports as soon as they have been presented to the Speaker to be laid before Parliament. However, the laws governing the functions of the Auditor-General ought to be construed as a whole. The constitutional duty of the Auditor-General to submit his reports to Parliament and Parliament’s consequential obligation to debate and scrutinise same, will be grossly prejudiced by a prior publication of the report,” it said.
He also explained that since the proceedings of the PAC provide an opportunity for irregularities raised by the Auditor-General to be interrogated and queried, persons and institutions affected by the report receive a further hearing on the findings of the Auditor-General’s reports at the proceedings of the PAC in Parliament.
The statement noted that a prior publication of the Auditor-General’s report completely undermines the purport and meaning of article 187(5) and (6) and should not be encouraged.
Consequently, Mr. Dame advises that a “withdrawal of the report on the government COVID-19 transactions from your website before same has been debated by Parliament and considered by the appropriate committee of Parliament.”
BELOW IS AG’s FULL LETTER
