Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu North Edem Agbana has questioned why the Minority Caucus is demanding an independent audit of Ghana’s evacuation exercise in South Africa when Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has already written to the Auditor-General to examine the expenditure.
Agbana said the minister had taken steps to subject the evacuation exercise to an audit, challenging the Minority to explain why it was still insisting on an independent investigation.
“Before you even started calling for an independent audit, the minister himself had written that the Auditor-General should come and audit,” Agbana said.
He questioned whether the Minority doubted the independence or capacity of the Auditor-General’s office, which is constitutionally mandated to audit public funds.
“If they are saying that the minister writing to the Auditor-General, asking that his own activity, the evacuation, and previous ones done under them be audited, what then again is the call for an independent audit?” he asked.
Agbana also challenged allegations that signatures on records relating to the payments were duplicated or forged, arguing that those making the claims should provide evidence to support them.
“For us to recognise that something is fake, you must be able to show the original,” he said.
He added that Ablakwa had made the relevant records available for scrutiny and challenged the Minority to identify a person whose name and signature appeared in the documents but who had not received the money recorded against them.
“The minister has said that I have given you all the documents. Cross-check all the names, 1,964. Tell me which individual out of the 1,964 could say that they took the money or signed against their names but did not receive the 5,000 Ghana cedis,” Agbana stated.
The MP also addressed errors in some of the records, including dates of birth that allegedly appeared to refer to people who had not yet been born. He said the ministry had provided passport details to explain the discrepancies as clerical errors involving data entry.
According to Agbana, the records and explanations provided by the ministry should be assessed through a proper audit rather than treated as proof of wrongdoing before the claims have been established.
