Politics of Thursday, 24 June 2021
Source: 3news.com
2021-06-24
A Public Account Committee sitting in session
Parliament’s Public Account Committee (PAC) has directed Ministries of Transport and of Roads and Highways as well as the Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing to pay for the cost of its sitting and live telecast after the three institutions failed to appear before the committee on Thursday June 23 without adducing any reason.
The Committee has commenced its public sittings to consider the audited public accounts of ministries, departments and agencies for the year ending December 2017.
About five institutions were supposed to be meet the public accounts committee on Thursday, two had written to the committee their inability to attend to the sitting.
A member of the committee Mutala Mohammed told TV3’s Komla Klutse that the failure to attend the sitting amounts to disrespect to the people of Ghana.
“We were supposed to sit today. The Ministries and agencies that we are supposed to look at their expenses and other things was supposed to take place today.
“They were actually communicated to by Parliament through the Committee and they knew that we are going to have a meeting today [June 24, 2021].
“I think yesterday or the day before, the Ministry Finance actually wrote to parliament indicating their inability to appear before the committee for reasons. That was understandable. The Ministry of Transport and Highways and the Ministry of Works and Housing, they never wrote. We came today to have started the meeting at 10 O’Clock, we sat but they never appeared only for the Chief Director to call the Chairman of the Committee expressing their inability to appear. We think that it is unacceptable, it is a disrespect not to the committee, it is a disrespect not to parliament but it is a disrespect to the people of this country.
“I think that the position that we have taken is that we are not going to entertain that and that, the Chairman actually directed that they will have to bear the cost of the sitting which they by their actions have made it impossible for us to have it today. They will have to bear the cost to parliament and the media. Remember it was going to be carried live and you know the amount of money you will forego as a result of programming.
“Assuming someone wants to have an advert on GTV or the media house that was supposed to carry this thing live and because of this public hearing they say they cannot take that advert ,they will forego making that money for the purposes of having this programme yet they didn’t appear.”