12 Auditor-General's Reports Locked Up

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The inability of Parliament to consider 12 reports from the office of the Auditor-General because of a legal suit challenging the status of Edward Dua-Agyemang, its head, sparked off legal debate in the House yesterday.

The reports are currently lying in the mails room of Parliament.

They are the 2006 Auditor-General's report on Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as performance auditing report of state institutions.

The issue, which could have dragged the House into a long legal battle, was end short when Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu, Second Deputy Speaker, who was in the chair, referred it to the leadership of the House for consideration.

'The issue cannot be resolved here through this interchange, there is the need for the leadership of the House to look at it in the supreme national interest,' he said.

The tussle started soon after the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Abraham Ossei-Aidooh, finished presenting the business statement for next week.

Mr Samuel Salas-Mensah (NDC-Upper West Akyem) and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, drew the attention of the Speaker to the reports and stressed for the house to consider them since there were important issues for the House to consider before its tenure elapses by the end of the year.

But, Mr Ossei-Aidooh, on a point-of-order, drew the attention of the chair to a letter written by Salas-Mensah to the Speaker of Parliament challenging the legal status of Mr Dua-Agyemang's signature on the 2006 reports because his tenure of office expired in 2005.

Mr Ossei-Aidooh said the Speaker had placed a freeze on the reports, following Mr Sallas-Mensah's letter and a subsequent suit at the Supreme Court challenging the legal status of the Auditor-General.

Rising on a point-of-order, Mr Sallas-Mensah said the decision of the Speaker had been reversed to enable the committee to consider the reports.

Mr Ossei-Aidooh on another point-of- order, stated: 'If you take a decision and there is a suit, that position is frozen'.

He said the issue was still pending at the Supreme Court and should not be subject to comments before the matter was determined.

Dr Benjamin Kunbuor (NDC-Lawra Nandom), wondered why parliament took custody of the reports against the backdrop of the legal status of the Auditor-General in appending his signature on them.

wondered why parliament took custody of the reports against the backdrop of the legal status of the Auditor-General in appending his signature on them.'These reports should have been returned as unsolicited goods, but you take them and they turn to create problems for us,' he said.

It was at this juncture that Alhaji Yakubu made his ruling to stop further debate on the matter.