The Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, says the Attorney General, Godfred Dame, has no right whatsoever to advice the Auditor General over the audit report on COVID-19 expenditure.
The Attorney General in a letter to the Auditor-General Mr. Johnson Akuamoah-Asiedu described the publication of the audit report on government’s expenditure of Covid-19 funds as premature and unconstitutional.
Godfred Dame argued that Article 187(5) of the Constitution mandates the Auditor General to submit his report to Parliament and in that report, draw attention to any irregularities in the accounts audited.
“I observe that the report of the special audit on the Government’s COVID-19 transactions has been published on the website of the Audit Service. In light of the constitutional provisions pertaining to the duty of the Auditor-General after the preparation of audit reports, I consider a publication of the COVID-19 audit report or indeed any audit report particularly when same has not been either considered by Parliament or referred to a committee of Parliament, premature,” the Attorney General said in the letter.
But speaking with Selorm Adonoo on Eyewitness News, the NDC’s Communications Officer said it is irresponsible on the part of the Attorney-General to offer advice to the Auditor-General on this matter.
“It is irresponsible for the Attorney General to be given advice which is expressly against the laws of this country. Where from this so-called advice? Godfred Dame has no right to advice the Auditor-General on what the law mandates him to do.
“The Auditor-General is not part of government, and so he does not need the advice of the Attorney-General. That’s an ungodly intrusion into the mandate of the Auditor-General,” Mr. Gyamfi noted.
He described as flawed Godfred Dame’s argument on the publication of the audit report.
“What he is saying is much ado about nothing, the Auditor-General can only work with what is written in the law, black and white. There’s nothing prejudicial about the publication of an audit report, let’s get that straight,” Sammy Gyamfi pointed out.
