The Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana believes the government will continue to wallow in deficits if it keeps turning a blind eye to audits into procurement processes.

According to Prof Peter Quartey, it is high time the Auditor General commissioned a forensic audit as part of its financial assessments of government expenditure.

"It surprises me that we don't do this expenditure tracking. We don't use this forensic or procurement audit and we are always doing financial audits," he said.

He made these remarks on Joy FM ahead of the reading of the 2024 Budget Statement in Parliament.

Speaking on Wednesday, November 15, he said this phenomenon leaves room for corrupt practices to fester.

The economist also lamented the kid gloves with which officials implicated in the Auditor-General's reports are treated.

"The Auditor General's report is awash with a lot of evidence already. It ends up in Parliament but hardly do we see how far it has gone [in terms of ] people being punished... maybe it's being done but to the best of my knowledge, it is not very public," he added.

Tamale South MP, Haruna Iddrisu believes the recommendations from the ISSER boss are salient and hopes that it would be considered by the appropriate bodies.