<<Print>>

Businessman, Jeffery Amponsah, has challenged the Auditor General to prosecute all those cited for making false claims for sums of money which had already been paid.

Mr. Amponsah would even be happy if staff of his own company, Byes and Ways, which was named as one of the companies on whose behalf unfounded claims were made, are prosecuted together with public officers who aided in raising the invoices.

The Managing Director of Byes and Ways made the remark on Joy FM Wednesday, in reaction to a finding in the Auditor report that GH¢28,404,803.80 said to be owed  Byes and Ways by the Ministry of Power, now Ministry of Energy. The company from a 2015 contract for the supply of wooden poles and stay blocks had been rejected because the said amount had already been paid.
 
According to the report, the Energy Ministry in its response to a request made by the Finance Ministry on June 21, 2017, asserted that government was indebted to the contractor an amount of GH¢28,404,803.80 for the items supplied.

However, in the process of validating the claim, the Auditor General discovered that said amount was paid on December 16, 2016, leaving an outstanding amount of GH¢3,404,803.90.

The report further notes that “Upon further discussion with management, it was established that two cheques from ECG number 049347 and 049278 for 2,500,000 and 5,000,000 respectively, were made in 2016 to fully discharge the liability.”

“We, therefore, rejected the liability of GH¢28,404,803.80,” the report said.

But speaking on Joy FM, Mr. Amponsah dared Auditor General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, who is charged with the responsibility of auditing and reporting on the government's expenditures, to produce documents from his company in which the supposed claim was made.

“I am challenging the Ministry of Power [Energy Ministry], I am challenging the Ministry of Finance and I am challenging the Auditor General…to produce that invoice which says we are demanding Twenty-Eight Million Four Hundred and Four Thousand [Cedis]”.

The situation he observed, has become synonymous with a change of government recalling how he suffered a similar fate in 2001, 2009 and now under the current administration.

“What stops the Ministry of Power to have reconciled their accounts before sending that demand to Ministry of Finance?”

He lamented: “As a taxpayer, I have always wondered why such reports come out every year and nothing happens about those reports,” and asked why the Attorney-General has not initiated steps to prosecute the offenders.

“I’m calling for the prosecution of everybody [named] in the Auditor General’s report that has been cited to have made a claim for money that he does not deserve, including the company [Byes and Ways],” Mr. Amponsah told Daniel Dadzie, host of the Show.