The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has urged African countries to place their Auditor-Generals and audit institutions under Parliament rather than the Executive to strengthen financial accountability and prevent conflicts of interest in the management of public resources.
He said the arrangement in which audit institutions operated under the Executive undermined their independence as they could be required to scrutinise the same government that appointed them.
“Try to convince your people to make sure that the Auditor-General and the Audit Service become institutions for Parliament, not the Executive. That is the best practice because once they are appointees of the Executive, they owe their loyalty to the Executive,” he said.
Prudent use of public funds
Addressing the opening of the 2026 AFROPAC conference and general meeting in Accra today (Nov 2), Mr Bagbin said it was difficult for the Executive to effectively audit itself and it was a reason an independent audit institutions were essential to ensuring that public funds were used for the benefit of citizens.
The four-day event is being held on the theme “Oversight for resilience: Strengthening Africa’s Public Accounts Committees amid a shifting financial landscape”.
It is aimed at strengthening the capacity of PACs across Africa to provide effective parliamentary oversight, promote fiscal accountability and protect public resources amid changing financial and economic conditions.
It is being by Speakers of Parliament, parliamentary leaders, heads of Supreme Audit Institutions, finance officials and delegates from across Africa.
Important instrument
Mr Bagbin, who is also the Chairperson of the African Parliamentary Network Against Corruption (APNAC), said Parliament had a responsibility to ensure that public officials accounted for resources entrusted to them.
He, therefore, urged PAC members to discharge their oversight responsibilities without fear or political considerations, saying they must have the courage to confront public officials over financial irregularities and mismanagement.
In his view, the PAC was an important parliamentary instrument for examining public expenditure and ensuring that resources mobilised from citizens were applied to their intended purposes.
He also called for adequate financial and institutional support for PACs, arguing that their work was too important to be constrained by limited budgets.
The Speaker also urged Parliaments to strengthen collaboration with the media to ensure that the findings of PAC hearings translated into concrete action.
He observed that in many countries, including Ghana, reports submitted by the committees were not adequately debated on the floor of Parliament, thereby limiting public awareness of their findings and recommendations.
“It is not just a public show to call people and ask them questions and then present a report,” he said.
He added that the public needed to know the amounts recovered, the financial irregularities prevented and the officials prosecuted as a result of the committees’ work.
Such outcomes would demonstrate the value of parliamentary oversight and help secure greater public and institutional support for the committees, he said.
He also advocated stronger professional standards in public financial management, saying the recurrence of financial irregularities in public institutions was partly attributable to the absence of professionally qualified personnel.
He urged African parliaments to enact laws to regulate professional practice and ensure that people entrusted with financial responsibilities possessed the requisite qualifications and ethical standards.
Track audit recommendations
The Vice-Chairperson of the AFROPAC, Abena Osei-Asare, called on PACs across Africa to strengthen oversight of public finances by tracking government loans, revenue collection and the implementation of audit recommendations.
She said the changing financial landscape, rising public debt and pressure on government revenues required stronger parliamentary scrutiny to protect public resources.
“Our parliaments must follow every loan contracted and every tax collected,” she said.
Mrs Osei-Asare, who is also the MP for Atiwa East, said the effectiveness of PACs should not be measured by the number of public hearings conducted or audit irregularities uncovered, but by the corrective actions taken to prevent their recurrence.
“Identifying what has gone wrong is only the first step. Our greatest challenge is ensuring that it does not happen again,” she added.
Enforce sanctions
In an address read on his behalf, the Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, urged African governments to move beyond producing audit reports to enforcing recommendations and sanctioning officials responsible for financial irregularities, saying persistent audit findings without consequences undermine public accountability.
“Reports are presented, hearings are held, recommendations are issued, and the doom loop continues. We must break this as accountability without consequences is just documentation,” he said.
He said Africa’s development challenge was not only about mobilising more resources but also ensuring prudent management of existing public funds, warning against waste, leakages and financial indiscipline.
“We cannot keep asking our citizens to contribute more taxes, while allowing waste, leakages and financial indiscipline to drain the public purse,” he said,
Hold public officials accountability
The Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, equally challenged African Parliaments to move beyond identifying financial irregularities in audit reports and ensure that public officials responsible were held accountable.
He said the effectiveness of PACs should be measured by the corrective actions taken, funds recovered and sanctions imposed, rather than the number of public officials summoned for hearings.
“The real test is whether these findings lead to corrective action, recovery of public funds, and appropriate sanctions where wrongdoing has been established,” he said.
Pull quote
“Identifying what has gone wrong is only the first step. Our greatest challenge is ensuring that it does not happen again”.
