Mahama warns: Refund misappropriated funds or face imprisonment
President John Dramani Mahama has vowed to crack down on individuals implicated in financial irregularities captured in the Auditor-General’s reports, warning that culpable persons will be compelled to refund misappropriated funds or face imprisonment.
Speaking at a diaspora town hall meeting in the United Kingdom on Sunday, May 31, the President expressed concern over persistent financial losses recorded in successive Auditor-General’s reports, describing them as a major drain on the country’s resources. He noted that recurring findings point to longstanding weaknesses in public financial management and accountability.
“Every year, you hear the Auditor General’s report, Ghana loses 12 billion cedis from misappropriations and things. The Chief Justice has graciously set up audit courts,” he disclosed.
According to President Mahama, the establishment of specialised audit courts represents a significant step toward ensuring audit infractions attract real consequences beyond parliamentary scrutiny. He explained that individuals cited in audit reports will no longer only appear before the Public Accounts Committee but will also face legal action aimed at recovering lost funds and holding offenders accountable.
“The Attorney General and the Auditor General are going to take out all the people who have misappropriated, and we’re putting them in front of those special courts to either refund our money or proceed to NSAWAM and go and catch some rest there,” he stated.
His remarks come amid renewed public attention on financial accountability following recent sittings of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, where several cases of irregular expenditure and financial mismanagement were scrutinized. Among them was a directive ordering an official of the Ho Municipal Assembly to refund GH¢138,000 within 60 days over audit-related infractions.
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