Friday, 29 March

$1m Kroll saga: A-G's reopening of window to Osafo-Maafo "good" – Gov't

Politics
Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah

Ghana’s Information Minister, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has said the reopening of a window of opportunity by the Auditor-General, Mr Daniel Yao Domelevo to Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo’s office to furnish the Audit Service with evidence of work done by Kroll Associates for which the private company was paid $1 million, is a good move.

“I have actually given them [Senior Minister’s Office] another opportunity”, Mr Domelevo told Class91.3FM’s Blessed Sogah in a yet-to-be-aired interview.

According to him, “On the 24th of September, I wrote to the Senior Minister and some officials of the Ministry of Finance notifying them of my intention to disallow the expenditure and surcharge them. So, I have given the Senior Minister and the officials two weeks. I think one week is gone and it is left with one week. If they don’t bring the evidence [of work done], my certificate will arrive in front of the Senior Minister. I will surcharge him,” Mr Domelevo said in the ‘State of the Nation’ interview.

He explained that after the Audit Service completed its work, the Ministry of Finance failed to submit its response and comments within the 30-day period stipulated in the regulations governing the activities of the Audit Service.

“Our management letter, which went to the Ministry of Finance was dated 1st of March 2019. So, 30 days should be when? Maximum 1st of April [but] we waited for the Ministry of Finance for the whole of April to pass, they didn’t respond. We waited till the whole of May…,” he stated.

Responding to the two-week window opportunity, Mr Oppong Nkrumah told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on Class91.3FM’s 505 news programme on Friday, 4 October 2019 that: “The government has never said he [Mr Domelevo] did not comply with the procedures”.

“The government has said that he requested, they said they will respond but before they could provide their response, the audit was completed and the conclusions were included in the auditor’s report, and that they were looking forward to appearing before parliament so that they can provide that evidence”, Mr Nkrumah explained, adding: “In the interim, he has spoken about it publicly as though it were a concluded matter”.

Mr Nkrumah noted: “I speak for the ministry of finance and on behalf of the government based on the instructions I get. And the instructions I have are that when they appear before Parliament, they will be providing that evidence”.

He continued: “You are now making me understand that he has, for want of a better expression, reopened the window that they should furnish him with information, else he’ll proceed to surcharge. I think that can only be good and it’ll be my expectation that the Office of the Senior Minister, if, indeed, they have received this correspondence, will then proceed to make this information available to them”.

 

 

Source: classfmonline.com