A law auditing expert is worried about the trend of financial irregularities consistently revealed in the Auditor General's report.

Prof. Samuel Antwi says the trend continues because those placed in charge of expenditure at the various state organisations are not subjected to any consequence whenever such irregularities are revealed.

According to him, it sets bad precedence and, therefore, anyone who assumes head of a state-owned organisation feels they can incur losses and go scot-free.

"The major problem is that every year when the Auditor General reports come, nothing happens to principal spending officers that are mentioned in the report," he said on Joy FM's Super Morning Show.

He lamented that even when the principal spending officers are engaged to account for the losses, they are only made to answer a few questions without being subjected to rigorous processes as prescribed by the law.

"The only thing that happens is that when these things are brought to the fore, they are going to take them to the public account committee...they ask them some few questions, the CEOs and the Director General and the big people would now carry their bags go back to their offices and commit the same errors," he added.

Professor Antwi iterated that the country needs to be serious with its financial management.

He decried the government's recent pursuit of an IMF programme, saying that the financial irregularities revealed in the AG's report could have been worth more than the $3 billion bailout request from the IMF.

This, he said could have helped build many hospitals and solve other pertinent issues.

The AG's report disclosed a disturbing amount of over ¢15 billion loss due to irregularities.

According to the report, outstanding debts and loans recoverable from the total loss amount to 99.37%.

There are also cases of payroll irregularities hovering around ¢11m. Amongst these, there are procurement and contract irregularities.

The country has been experiencing financial losses over the years. Significant are those from 2018 to 2022.

In 2018, it was ¢3 billion, then moved to ¢5 billion in 2019. In 2020, it shot up to ¢12 billion, increased to ¢17 billion in 2021 then finally dropping a little to ¢15 billion in the year under review, 2022.