The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Kwaku Agyeman-Man has called for the enactment of new laws to prevent out-going governments from awarding fresh contracts weeks to their exit from office.
Speaking in an interview with Citi News’ Richard Dela Sky, the PAC chairman said the law will help forestall such last minute governance processes.
“The way things are going I believe we shouldn’t leave these kind of things to discretion, so there is a need for us to enact legislation that will stop this kind of rot,” he added.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu’s comment follows an uproar by the incoming New Patriotic Party government over the awarding of new contracts and recruitments by the outgoing National Democratic Congress (NDC) government after its defeat in the December 7 polls.
But the NDC administration has justified its action saying it is not against Ghana’s laws.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu noted that “in Australia they have laws; six months to the end of your term, you don’t sign certain contracts, you can’t commit the state to certain sums of money.”
He said because Ghana’s does not have such laws, any government needs what exercise “prudence” during its last days in office.
“What they [NDC] are doing, to me it is very bad and it doesn’t tally in good governance. Ten days or one month to exit where you are and you are committing the national resources to the level that we are hearing that they are committing makes the situation really awful. There may not be any rules, regulations that will stop an outgoing government from signing any contract but it behooves on you to be prudent in the decisions and actions you take.
You have one week to move away and you are committing the nation to millions of dollars.”
“The question is; are you living resources there to pay for the commitment or you are just committing expenditure for someone to come and raise money to pay? That is why I’m saying that if you don’t leave and take prudent decisions you may not be acting in the interest of the state but in your own interest,” he added.
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