MPs Clash •Over Auditor’s Report

Incessant delays in the laying of papers before Parliament led to a clash between the Majority Leader, Abraham Ossei-Aidoo, and the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Samuel Sallas-Mensah on the floor of the House on Friday.

The exchange of words between the two Legislators took place when the Majority Leader finished presenting the explanatory memorandum on the business statement for this week and Sallas-Mensah, also the MP for Upper West Akyem, realized that none of his committee's reports was on the planned agenda.

He then complained to the Second Deputy Speaker, Hon. Alhassan Yakubu Malik, who was presiding, about the delays in laying the reports which had been received by the Speaker since July last year.

He argued that it was long overdue for the 12 reports emanating from the Auditor-General's Office to be laid before the House for appropriate action.

Sallas-Mensah, who is not seeking re-election after 16 years in the august law-making House, said since the current Parliament had barely six months to be dissolved, there was the urgent need to lay those reports before the MPs.

They include the 2006 audited reports of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies and the Consolidated Fund.

He was worried that if those reports were not laid before the House before the end of this month, the 2007 report would be ready and that would compound both the Committee and the entire House's work.

Hon. Ossei-Aidoo's contention was that since there was a legal issue before the Supreme Court about the Auditor-General's continued stay in office long after attaining age 70, the House could not lay any document signed by him.

That position however did not sit well with Hon. Sallas-Mensah, who argued that as long as the President had not removed Edward Dua-Agyeman from office as AG, he still remained as such, which meant the House should honour documents and reports certified by him.

He then questioned why the 2005 reports, which were prepared before he attained age 70, had also not been laid before the House.

Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor, MP for Lawra-Nandom, supported Sallas-Mensah, saying the fact that there was a legal matter against the Auditor-General did not mean that the whole institution should come to a halt. “Lastly, let us not go so much for the form; let us go by the substance.”

The Second Deputy Speaker, gauging the rising mood of the argument, quickly sealed it with the ruling that leadership and the Speaker would resolve the matter in the supreme interest of the nation.

By Sylvanus Nana Kumi