It has emerged that 96 former students of the Tamale School of Hygiene owe the government an amount of GHc247, 108. 95 paid to them as allowances long after they had left the institution.
This came to light when the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament discussed the status of un-recovered monies owed the state as it commenced a series of public hearings into the Report of the Auditor General on the Public Accounts of Ghana for December 31, 2016.
The public hearing focused on the Ministry of Health and its allied institutions; Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Central Medical Stores various regional hospitals and health directorates across the country, among others.
But Dr. Nsiah Asare, Director General of the Ghana Health Service defended the debt.
Normally, public sector payments are delayed so it [allowances] may be paid even after one has left school and be cumulative to the period one was in school. It is predetermined that within the 12 months, one will be in school for 10 months and receive allowance for the period. There might be a delay so by the time one leaves school, government might have delayed for two or three months,” he said.
The other debt accrued from unearned salaries, misapplied funds, salary and allowance advance as well as unaccounted monies.
Committee Chairman, James Klutse Avedze during the sitting on Monday was dissatisfied with the attitude of the sector Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu who failed to appear before the committee.
According to Avedzi, the Minister should have known before because he has chaired the committee before.
“He has been a Chairman of the committee before and we saw how he handled Ministers who failed to appear before it. So he shouldn’t be doing a different thing. He always fails to appear before the Committee. He has never appeared [before the committee].”
A member of the Committee, Alex Agyekum also wanted persons who have committed various infractions to be personally hauled before the Committee to answer for their transgressions.
“Each of those people who have been cited should appear before this committee and answer for themselves. Each person should carry his or her own cross. Whilst we are doing this, the officers and all those who intend to commit the same infractions will watch and be scared because they will know that if they mistakenly do something in contravention of the Commission of Administration Act, I will be hauled before Parliament.”
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By: Nii Larte Lartey & Sixtus Dong Ullo | citinewsroom.com | Ghana