Auditor- General Clears Addo-Kufuor

The auditor-general, Mr Edward Dua-Agyeman, has stated that Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, minister for defence, has not been cited in any financial irregularities with regard to the auditing of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA).

He said media reports that the defence minister, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia, and other MPs in the Kumasi metropolis had been cited in financial irregularities at the KMA were not true.

In an interview last Friday, Mr Dua-Agyeman said what the media reports were referring to were part of queries sent to the KMA to explain why contracts by the affected MPs for some projects in their constituencies were not put out through tender.

He said the queries were raised in a draft audit report conducted by the Audit Serve as part of the auditing of the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies throughout the country. He indicated that the report was a draft and not a final one.

Moreover, he said, the KMA had responded by explaining that the assembly found the amounts involved to be insignificant such that those projects needed not go through the tender process.

Mr Dua-Agyeman said it was also not true that Dr Addo-Kufuor had not retired the ¢40 million given him as special imprest for the construction of a 20-seated water closet toilet facility at Ashanti Newtown as had been reported in the media.

The auditor-general said he was surprised that a draft confidential report could be leaked to the press by those who knew very well that it was not a final report.