Huge amounts paid as judgment debt. Update: 25-Oct-2014

Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, a Consulting Director at the Centre of Public Accountability of the
University of Professional Studies, on Friday said GH?217, 971,388.00 had been paid as judgment debt in 2011. He said, “Financial irregularities have become
an annual ritual because of lack of monitoring and supervision and non-adherence to financial laws and regulations in the country”.
Mr Dapaah said this in Tamale during a sensitization workshop on the findings and recommendations of the Auditor General’s
Public Accounts of the country from 2009 to 2011. The event, which was organised by SEND-
GHANA in collaboration with the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), was to educate and sensitize participants on the results of the
findings and recommendations identified by the Auditor General on the public accounts of the country between 2009 to 211.
It was also to build the capacity of selected Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) on the role of the Audit Report
Implementation Committees (ARCs) and the mechanisms for the implementation of the recommendations of Audit reports as well as citizens’ role in ensuring good governance by demanding accountability at the local level.
Mr Dapaah urged the government to put in place a public sector financial management system to ensure the public funds were
properly protected and managed.
Mr Vitus Azeem, Executive Director of GII, said his outfit had commissioned and produced a
report dubbed: ‘Show me the Money’ which looked at the guides in the Auditor General’s reports over three years and actions taken on these reports as part of the activities under the project.
He said the GII would facilitate activities in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and the Northern regions with Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs) as participants especially those from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Ministry of Education (MoE), Interior, Health and the Ministry of
Youth and Sports. Mr Azeem said GII had implemented several
activities, which specifically aimed at helping to improve transparency, accountability and to promote good governance in Ghana. The GII, a local chapter of Transparency
International (TI) with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is implementing a project aimed at consolidating transparency and accountability in Ghana. Mr Azeem also launched a book titled: “Show
me the money” as part of the programme.

Mortuary men on strike; families stranded at Korle Bu. Update: 24-Oct-2012

Mortuary attendants at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital are on strike leaving many families who have brought their deceased relatives
stranded. The Korle Bu morgue is preferred by many to store their corpses because it has sufficient
space and the necessary facilities to serve the purpose.
The attendants belong to one of the 12 labour unions who have declared an indefinite strike
demanding that government allows them to manage their Tier Two pension scheme. Health workers, as well as other public sector workers, including the Judicial Service Staff Association, Ghana Education Service and
CLOGSAG, have withdrawn their services. The Ghana Medical Association has withdrawn its out-patient services and is only.attending to emergency and in-patient cases. Thus, the families thrown into mourning are left with no other option than to send the
dead bodies to other morgues.
One of the stranded victims at the Korle Bu mortuary who spoke to Adom News said he had brought his 16-year-old daughter who
died on Friday morning only to be turned away. He said the mortuary attendant told him the facility was not receiving new corpses due to
the strike. The distraught father added that, the family is contemplating sending her to a private morgue for safe keeping.
One of the attendants who spoke to talkofgh.blogspot.com on condition of anonymity expressed regret at the inconvenience caused, explaining that they are only attending to families who want to collect their bodies at the hospital.
Meanwhile, the situation at the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital morgue is different as a skeletal staff was seen working. Pathologist at the unit, Paul Aidoo said though
they are part of the group on strike, staff at the KATH facility are doing it with a human face to prevent any mayhem.

5 Ministries Waste 246 . 5 Million Ghana Cedis In 3 Years Updated: 24 -Oct- 2014

Financial irregularities in five ministries between 2009 and 2011 cost the nation GH¢ 246. 5 million, according to an abridged version of the findings of the Auditor-General ’s Report published by Ghana Integrity Initiative ( GII) , the anti corruption organisation..These “irregularities ” described in the report include poor cash management practices, non-
collection of outstanding debts, procurement and contract irregularities, payments not
supported by appropriate.documentation , stores irregularities, misappropriation of cash , payments of unearned salaries , payroll irregularities , and major breakdown of controls
over tax administration . The report “Show Me the Money ”, reviewed the Auditor General’ s Report of the Ministry of Finance . Ministry of Education , Ministry of
Health , Ministry of Youth and Sports and.Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’ s Department .
It shows the deep seated systematic nature of mismanagement in the country, and the failure.of authorities to act to stem or punish what sometimes appears to be plain stealing , but
has been given the label of " financial irregularities ”. The report calculated the total amount of
“ financial irregularities” in the Ministry of Finance to be GH ¢ 11. 9 million, GH ¢80 .7 million, and GH ¢ 54 .6 million in 2009 , 2010
and 2011 respectively . At the Ministry of Education , financial irregularities amounted to
GH ¢ 717,029 , GH ¢ 2 million and GH ¢ 3. 3 million within the same period . The recurring financial irregularities at the Ministry of Youth and Sports were tax
irregularities , petty cash not accounted for, and unpaid staff advances. These irregularities
amounted to GH ¢ 14,037 million, GH ¢1 . 2 million and GH ¢ 278,733 million in 2009 , 2010 and 2011 .
At the Ministry of Justice and Attorney - General ’s Department , total irregularities uncovered amounted to GH ¢ 48. 469 in 2010 ,
and GH¢ 16 .3 million and US $ 65, 929 in 2011 . There were no adverse audit findings in 2009 .
According to GII ’s report , which was presented by Mr . Albert Kan- Dapaah, the consultant for
the project , the objective of the report to ascertain the extent to which audit findings and recommendations have been implemented. However, beyond verbal assurances from key
officials that action had been taken, the report ’s authors could not be establish or verify whether the audit findings had truly been acted upon . “It is not the normal practice of the Auditor- General to ascertain whether action has been taken on their audit recommendations of the previous year . The Auditor- General, therefore, does not have any record on actions taken,” the report’ s authors said. “ At the same time , the ministries were
reluctant to allow access to their books and records by the public ,” they added. Mr . Kan-Dapaah, who is a former chairman of.the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament,
said in his presentation that audit findings must be acted upon , otherwise the whole audit.assignment is rendered useless. He also said.the responsibility to ensure that actions are taken and sanctions applied as necessary is
placed on the Audit Report Implementation Committees ( ARICs). The creation of ARICs is mandated by section 30 of the Audit Service Act 2000 (Act 584) ,
which provides that bodies and organisations which are subject to audit by the Auditor- General must establish an ARIC . According to Mr . Kan -Dapaah, the ministries studied generally did not attach particular.importance to the role of the ARICs between 2009 and 2011 , although frantic efforts were being made in the last year to establish the.ARICs and ensure their efficacy.
The report revealed that in all the three years that were examined , the five ministries did not comply with the statutory financial reporting requirements demanded by the Financial Administration Act , 2003 , compelling the Auditor- General to restrict himself to an audit of transactions of the MDAs, as opposed to an audit of their financial statements. The report therefore called on government to
take steps to compel the MDAs to comply with this requirements, as the current practice limits the scope of the audit as is envisaged by the law .

Gay Doctor appears in court today Update: 24-Oct-2014

The Medical Practitioner, Ali Gabasi who has been accused of sodomizing and infecting a 16 year old male student with HIV is expected in court today, Talk of Ghana reports. Dr Gabasa has been in the hands of the authorities, his 48 hour permissible time for a suspect to be detained ends on Friday. Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Criminal Investigations Department
(CID) of the Ghana Police Sevice, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) J. B Dankwa said even though investigations are still ongoing, the senior doctor at the Effia- Nkwanta Hospital in Takoradi in the
Western Region will appear before court today. “We are continuing investigations and it is likely we will send the suspect to court today, whether or not investigations are
completed. We are enjoined by law to arraign suspects 48 hours after they have been picked up,” he added. The Ghana Health Service says it will not protect Dr Gabass if he is guilty or not they say they will give law room to take its
course. The victim, whose name has been withheld, has been infected with HIV, but Dr Sulley Ali-Gabass says he cannot be blamed for the HIV. He says he is HIV
negative and could not possibly be the source of the virus.

UK Demonstrators Demand Apology From Mahama Updated: 24 -Oct- 2014

A group calling itself concerned Ghanaians in the United Kingdom want President John Mahama to apologize to them over some
comments he allegedly made during a visit to the country . The Public Affairs Director of the group, Nana Ansah Obofour on Talk of Ghana said President Mahama during an interaction with the Ghanaian community in the UK told them that “Ghana ’s economy was doing very well, there are jobs, infrastructure development , there are lights there are water and there is nothing which shows that the economy is bad.” He said the president further advised them
that “when they [relatives ] call us [from Ghana] and they tell us that the economy is bad they want to dupe us .” The comment according to Obofour is “ offensive” and “ insulting ” because the president painted a wrong picture of the
economy to them , hence the need to apologize . He questioned why the president said that saying “ even if at all if I support my relative
back home in Ghana is it the concern of the president ?” Meanwhile, the group on Thursday
demonstrate against President Mahama in London over what they call worsening economic conditions in Ghana . In a related development about twelve labour
unions in Ghana have declared an indefinite strike action to protest government ’s failure to pay public service workers their tier two pension funds into a private account.