Pressure Group OccupyGhana has indicated that there is more than GH¢5 billion that can be retrieved for the state if the Auditor General implements a Supreme Court directive to retrieve misappropriated funds.
The court also ordered that where applicable, criminal action should be instituted against accused persons by the Attorney General.
The Supreme Court reached this decision after the pressure instituted an action against the Auditor General seeking an order of the court to compel him to not only report on financial misappropriations by public officials but to take steps to retrieve all state finances that may have gone into wrong hands.
Member of OccupyGhana, Sydney Casely-Hayford, who welcomed the news on Wednesday, June 14 stated that: “At one point, when we estimated it, there is possible another 4 to 5 billion cedis that we should be able to put together for the state”.
Many a time, state officials are cited for misappropriation of funds in the Auditor General’s report, but such persons walk free despite causing financial loss to the state.
The new directive is intended to serve as deterrent to officials who intend to loot the state through their action and inaction.
Asked about how he felt by the court ruling, the Financial Analyst indicated that: “Happy is an understatement, we are elated, we have been fighting this for at least two years and we are happy we have gotten the reliefs we are seeking”.
“We see it as a major step forward in the fight against corruption and we are so pleased with it and we are not going to work with the Auditor General to bring all the cases to the fore; if we can we will go as far back as 1992 and rake all the Auditor General’s report and find all those persons,” he told Joy FM.
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