Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu

The Minority in Parliament has appealed to well-meaning Ghanaians to join in compelling the Attorney-General to submit the 2019 Audited Accounts of Government to Parliament.

Anything short of this, the Minority said, will amount to attempts by the Government to cover up wrong-doing .
According to the Minority, accountability, transparency and good governance obliges all Ghanaians to ensure that the Auditor-General complies with tenets and dictates of the Constitution and the laws of the state.

At a press briefing in Parliament on Monday 28th September, 2020, Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu indicated that the Auditor-General, who had previously complied with constitutional provisions in respect of being up-to-date with his reports to Parliament is yet to submit the Reports for the 2019 Financial Year.

He noted that the Reports for the 2018 Financial Year were incidentally submitted within the statutory time limit.
The Minority leader argued that this deliberate and unpardonable constitutional breach is a consequence of Executive intrusion and interference with an independent constitutional institution.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in July ordered the Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, to proceed on his accumulated leave of 123 working days, which sparked a wave of controversy.

The Auditor-General, the Minority leader said, is enjoined by the Constitution in Article 187(5) and Section 20 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 586) to submit to Parliament his Reports on the Public Accounts of Ghana for the preceding year within six months after the end of the said preceding year.

He said, “Notwithstanding the imperative of the above provisions of the Constitution and Act 586, the Auditor-General has failed to submit and publish his Reports, three months to the end of the financial year.”

“It is curious yet ironic that the Reports of the Auditor-General fell into arrears following the directive by the President to the Auditor-General to proceed on leave.”

The Auditor-General, Mr. Iddrisu said, had laboured to ensure that all Reports are submitted to Parliament within the statutory timelines.

“It is therefore sad that the failure to submit the said Reports on time to Parliament only occurred after the ill-advised and unfortunate decision of the President, directing the Auditor-General to proceed on compulsory retirement,” uhe added.

The Minority leader argued that the President’s abrupt and ill-advised directive to the Auditor-General was intended to gag the A-G from drawing attention to the many anomalies perpetrated by Government.

The delays, he said, are also deliberate for the primary purpose of avoiding further embarrassment to the Government and to cover up malfeasance because it is an election year.

The Minority called on the Acting Auditor-General to, in the interest of accountability and transparency and as a matter of urgency, do what is constitutionally required of him and submit to Parliament and subsequently publish the Reports on the Audited Accounts of Government for the 2019 Financial Year as provided for in the Constitution and the Audit Service Act.

The side called on President Akufo-Addo to direct the Acting Auditor-General to urgently submit the said Reports to Parliament for consideration and Report just as he directed the Auditor-General to proceed on his statutory leave.