By D.I Laary/ Cassandra Amegashie, GNA
Accra, Aug. 02, GNA – The Auditor-General has issued four certificates of indebtedness to individuals and organisations towards the recovery of State funds, which they wrongly utilised.
Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo announced at a media briefing, on Wednesday, that seven more would be issued by the close of the day by him as the Service sought to enforce the constitutional provision that mandated it to disallow public expenditures that were contrary to the law and surcharge same against persons responsible.
“I am entreated by the Audit Service Act to issue the certificates and it provides that we issue the certificate when there is be a prima facie evidence,” he explained.
Those found culpable, he said, would refund the money with interest in line with the prevailing Bank of Ghana interest rate.
He, therefore, urged the public to cooperate with the Service because they were simply doing their job as part of their mandate to serve ‘Mother Ghana’.
In June this year, the Supreme Court ordered the Auditor-General to quickly begin surcharging persons found to have misappropriated State funds.
This follows a suit filed by Occupy Ghana to ensure that the Auditor-General fulfilled this responsibility as was enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.
Article 187, Clause 7(b) (i) of the states: "... the Auditor-General may disallow any item of expenditure, which is contrary to law and surcharge the amount of any expenditure disallowed upon the person responsible for incurring or authorising the expenditure.”
This is reinforced in the Audit Service Act 2000 (Act 584) Section 17(1-2).
Mr Domelevo explained that it was essential to conduct some forensic auditing to establish a prima facie case because the audit report alone was enough for surcharging those indicted.
In view of this, some officials, including him, had since been receiving training to be able to gather the appropriate and credible evidence to ensure successful cases.
Those, served with the certificate of indebtedness, he explained, had up to 60 days to pay up or otherwise go to court to challenge the Auditor General, who had the sole mandate to issue the certificate.
The certificate covers those involved in cash irregularities and failure to account for State funds.
The Audit Service would, therefore, be reviewing files from the Fourth Republican era, Mr Domelevo said. Thus they were going back to open old cases to check irregularities.
He dismissed suggestions of political influence in his work saying, “The purpose for issuing the certificate of indebtedness is not to victimise anybody, but to ensure that State monies collected by individuals and organisations are used for their intended purposes.
“We are not operating under any political influence; we are here to serve mother Ghana and no one else.”
GNA
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