Hon Kwaku Agyemang Manu
The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Kwaku Agyemang Manu has told Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) they have no business blocking MPs from accessing their share of the District Assemblies Common Fund.
Kwaku Agyemang Manu was speaking at a workshop on the management of the Fund in Sunyani over the weekend.
According to him, District Coordinating Directors are the only spending officers in the various Assemblies and thus have the sole mandate to decide how funds are disbursed, not MMDCEs.
This follows recent reports of crippling rift between some MMDCEs and their MPs over the disbursement of the District Assemblies Common Fund.
Speaking to Citi News, Hon Agyeman Manu said there was no need for the DCE to approve before the MP can access his common fund.
?The spending officer in the assembly is the Coordinating Director. He can report to both the DCE and MP. The Coordinating Director can only explain to the MP what he can use his common fund for,? he stated.
When there are audit queries, it is the Coordinating Director who answers not the DCE. If there is any challenge, he can call the MP for him to meet with the auditors to explain some of these challenges so why the need for us to structure for the DCE to approve before the MP can utilize his common fund
Hon. Kwaku Agyemang Manu also warned recalcitrant DCEs they will in future face his committee in Parliament if they fail to turn a new leaf.
?Audit queries are geared towards the spending officer who advises the MCE which money can be spent and which cannot. The MCE is there as a figurehead and is not a civil servant in the strictest sense of civil service therefore should not be a part of it,? he stated.
Hon Agyeman Manu further indicated, ?When the MCE says a building should be put up, and they go through procurement processes, payments are not made by the MCE so if the auditors find something wrong with the payments, it is not the MCE but the Coordinating Director they look at.?
-Citifmonline
