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Audit bodies chase Mental Health Authority

Corruption Watch has discovered that the Mental Health Authority (MHA) is becoming a serial offender in effectively accounting for public funds allocated to it. 

The Auditor-General, for instance, questions the whereabouts of almost 200 thousand Ghana cedis of funds disbursed to the MHA in recent years.

In addition, the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) has shamed the MHA for failing to submit three consecutive quarterly internal audit reports and one annual internal audit work plan. 

The IAA insists that the submission of various reports and plans to the Agency provides “an assurance that existing control systems are working in the form and manner required.”

Reacting, Professor Akwasi Osei, the Chief Executive of the MHA, said he was not aware that the IAA had shamed the MHA for audit infractions. Besides, doubted the IAA’s claim that the MHA had not submitted internal audit work plan and reports, saying he needed to confirm from his team whether they did not submit the reports. 

In a telephone interview with Corruption Watch on Tuesday, Professor Osei disagreed with the recommendations of the Auditor-General that he should refund unaccounted funds that had been disbursed to the MHA’s partners. 

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RTI Commission urged to quickly complete necessary Legislative Instrument

The Right to Information (RTI) Commission has been prevailed upon to expedite action on the processes would see the passage of the needed Legislative Instrument for the full operationalization of the Right to Information law.

The Right to Information Bill was passed by the 7th Parliament of the 4th Republic on March 26, 2019, and assented to by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on May 21, 2019. It was however scheduled to be implemented beginning January 2020 so that it could be captured in the 2020 budget. Since it came into force in January 2020, it has been without a Legislative Instrument as is required.

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School Feeding Programme shrugs off corruption allegations

The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) has described as “palpably false, frivolous, unfounded and malicious” claims that the current leadership is corrupt.

“It was only calculated to tarnish the image of the leadership of GSFP and bring the name of the secretariat into disrepute,” a newspaper rejoinder issued by the Programme on Tuesday, September 28 insisted.

This comes in the wake of a publication in the Weekend Crusading Guide on Saturday, September 10, quoting one Madam Caroline Aboagye, with the headline ‘School Feeding Needs Overhauling’ that leadership of the Programme is not transparent in its dealings with caterers and other stakeholders.

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