The need to strengthen the accountability process in the public service was yesterday brought to the fore in Parliament when the Minister of Tourism and Diasproan Relations, Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng and his Chief Director, Mrs Bridget Katsriku, appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The PAC, which began public hearing of the 2004 Auditor-General's Report, was astounded by revelations of public funds not properly accounted for. The Chief Director, who answered questions from the PAC, chaired by Mr Samuel Sallas Mensah, told the members that her ministry did not have its own internal audit system and that it shared the resource with another ministry. The PAC was not enthused by the improper accountability of resources allocated to the ministry. Vouchers did not accompany monies paid consultants while contracts awarded were not documented. Some other queries raised were centred on non submission of imprest, improper award of consultancy services and uncompetitive procurement methods amounting to millions of cedis. At the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, for instance, the approval for 15 per cent of ¢14.5 million was paid to an agency for an additional work on an advertising project. The PAC ordered the agency to refund the 15 per cent. The committee also ordered further investigations into a mosquito spraying exercise in the La Beach area which amounted to¢2 billion. At a point, Mr Asamoah-Boateng, who is a new face in the ministry, admitted lapses in some payments made and pleaded for time to re-examine the ministry's value books and report back to the PAC. The Minister of the Interior, Mr Kwamena Bartels, and heads of agencies of his ministry also appeared before the PAC. "The Minister of the Interior apologised to the committee for the inability of some of the agencies under his ministry to quickly answer audit queries. The committee also noted that the Ghana Immigration Service, the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) had not responded to audit queries. Opening the first ever public hearing, the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi-Hughes, appealed to Ghanaians to exhibit the needed courage and fortitude in combating waste and misappropriation in the management of public funds. According to him, the spectre of waste and misappropriation were worrying as they threatened the country's economic development and the quality of lives of the broad masses of the people. He said he had observed with disquiet reports of the committee on the subject of misuse of public funds. The Speaker said the decision of the PAC not to sit in camera again but to make its deliberations public would further advance Parliament's quest for fruitful engagement with the people of Ghana about its activities. "It is my hope that through this engagement and other mechanisms already put in place by Parliament, the larger public will understand some of the problems in public financial management and proffer the needed inputs in policy formulation," he said. He emphasised that good accord should be maintained by the PAC at all times to sustain its engagement with the public, stressing that the committee should strive to be fair and balanced during its deliberations. "While we are diligently poised at exposing malfeasance in public financial management, I caution the Committee to endeavour at all times to protect the integrity of public institutions and officials by ensuring that their reputations are not unduly impugned," Mr Sekyi Hughes said. He further appealed to the media to be fair and objective in the reportage of the Committee's deliberations. The Chairman of the PAC, Mr Samuel Sallas Mensah, said the objective of the committee's sitting was to inject a level of transparency into its work and also bring it closer to the electorate. He said it was the conviction of the committee that opening its deliberations to the public would help it acquire from the public, particularly from the media and civil society, complementary information on some of the issues which would ultimately enhance its work. Mr Sallas Mensah. told the gathering that in most advanced democracies, the Public Accounts Committee's sittings were normally held in public and "Ghana cannot afford to be left behind and therefore to keep up with the global trend, it has become necessary for us to explore ways of making the work of the PAC more effective and responsive to the expectations of the public." He said in spite of the committee's quest to meet public acceptance of its work, it would try to walk the fine line of transparency and the need to protect the reputation and integrity of public officials and all those whowould appear before it. "It is for this reason that the committee insists on receiving an official response from respective Ministries, Departments and Agencies and individuals before the public sitting," he said. Mr Sallas Mensah said through such process, any official, who, for instance, had a strong reservation about an audit query and believed that there were very good reasons why such issues should not be brought to the public domain would be encouraged to make his or her submissions in camera and its merits decided upon by the committee. Source: Daily Graphic