Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Tuesday,
February 14, 2017
OccupyGhana has announced that it has received a copy of the High
Court (Civil Procedure) (Amendment) (No. 2) Rules, 2016 (CI 102), which regulates
appeals to the High Court from the Auditor-General’s Disallowances and
Surcharges.
OccupyGhana said its incessant pressure led to the changes and said
that the absence of a well-defined rule made Ghana lose almost GH¢2.5 billion
through Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) alone within a decade or
more.
The group further said between 2009 and 2014, monies lost to Ghana
through Public Boards, Corporations and Other Statutory Institutions were over
GH¢5 billion per the Auditor General’s own annual reports.
The Battle
A statement issued in Accra by the group yesterday said they have
been ‘battling’ the Auditor General to get him to exercise the constitutional
and statutory powers of Disallowance and Surcharge, and thereby help Ghana to
recover the billions of Cedis that are lost to the nation each year through
blatant and largely unpunished public sector corruption.
“In the course of that engagement, OccupyGhana discovered that the
requirement under Article 187(10) of the Constitution for the enactment of
rules of court to regulate appeals against the Auditor-General’s Disallowances
and Surcharges had not been complied with,” they said.
The group further said on 28th May 2015, they wrote to
the Rules of Court Committee for inquiry and after subsequent interactions, it
was invited to submit to the Rules of Court Committee proposed draft rules for
enactment as required under Article 187(10).
“Subsequently, OccupyGhana received for its comments, the draft bill
which captured almost verbatim, the proposals we had made,” the group
explained.
The pressure group said it has always contended that “the
Auditor-General has more power to commence the process of recovering monies
lost to Ghana by issuing the Disallowances and Surcharges, than the simple
annual ritual of issuing reports to Parliament containing mere recommendations.”
No Effect
They said Auditor-General between 2011 and 2013 had complained in
his reports that “the cataloguing of financial irregularities in my Report on
MDAs and Other Agencies has become an annual ritual that seems to have no
effect.”
“It is the continued blatant theft of the nation’s monies through
public sector corruption and the apparent unwillingness of the Auditor-General
to exercise the powers of Disallowance and Surcharge that compelled OccupyGhana
to reluctantly commence proceedings before the Supreme Court on 21st
July 2016,” adding “that matter is still pending, and on 31st January 2017, the
Supreme Court directed the parties to file further arguments on the matter.”
“As we wait for this matter to be concluded in court or settled out
of court if the Auditor-General simply issues the required Disallowances and
Surcharges, we are gratified to witness the enactment of these rules, CI 102,
which we have taken the liberty to christen ‘The OG Rules’.”
OccupyGhana said the latest development showed that “any labour for
mother Ghana is not in vain. We also express our sincere gratitude to the Rules
of Court Committee, particularly Her Ladyship, the Chief Justice, for the
opportunity to work together on this matter.”
“It is in the same spirit that we reiterate our long-expressed
willingness to drop the court action the day the Auditor-General issues the
first Disallowances and Surcharges,” it added.
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