OccupyGhana threatens to sue Auditor General

OccupyGhana fails information request under RTI law

Auditor General fails to honour RTI request after a year

Pressure group, OccupyGhana, has threatened to drag the Auditor General to court over his refusal to honour their demands for some information pertaining to the constitutional duties of the office.

According to the group, the auditor general, for over a year, has refused to furnish it with the request filed under the Right to Information Act.

As part of their demands, OccupyGhana says it wants to be furnished with information on the issuance of surcharge and disallowance to persons identified as having been responsible for or engaged in the illegal use of government funds as identified in the Auditor General’s 2019 and 2020 Audit Reports.

In a follow up to the letter reiterating its request, the group, on Tuesday, 7 June 2022, said, “We further indicated that while we would appreciate it if the information was delivered to us in hard copy and/or electronic form, and we were happy to provide the necessary computer drives for the electronic format.

“It has been almost a year since we delivered the letter to you. You have neither acknowledged receipt of the letter nor provided the information we seek.

“We write to repeat our constitutional demand for the information. If you fail or refuse to respond to our demand, we shall commence legal proceedings against you, including filing a petition to the Right to Information Commission,” it added.

Tagging its request as a means to ascertain the Auditor General’s compliance with section 85(2) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) and the Supreme Court’s ruling in OCCUPYGHANA v ATTORNEY-GENERAL, the group said it wants to be furnished with;

(i) a list of all actions that your office has taken since (a) 2016 when Act 921 was passed, and (b) 2017 when the Supreme Court decision was made; (ii) the status of all such actions; and (ii) copies of (a) the annual reports that you have submitted in line with section 85(2) of Act 921, and (b) actions and processes taken pursuant to the Supreme Court decision.

Read the full letter by OccupyGhana below:

Our Ref: OG/2022/008

7 June 2022

The Attorney-General & Minister of Justice

Office of the Attorney-General & Ministry of Justice

Accra

Attention: Godfred Y Dame, Esq

Dear Sir:

RE: RIGHT TO INFORMATION REQUEST

On 30 June 2021, we wrote to you on the above-entitled matter (our ref OG/2021/002), requesting information on whether or not you have complied with section 85(2) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921), which requires you to submit annual reports to the Finance Minister, Auditor-General and Parliament on actions that you have taken on behalf of the government following the Auditor-General’s annual reports and Parliament’s recommendations.

In that letter, we also reminded you of the decision of the Supreme Court in OCCUPYGHANA v ATTORNEY-GENERAL, that ‘the Attorney-General is hereby ordered to take all necessary steps to enforce the decisions or steps taken by the Auditor-General… to ensure compliance including in some cases criminal prosecutions.’

We then indicated that as citizens of Ghana, we were interested in ascertaining whether you had satisfied these demands of the Act and the Supreme Court. We therefore requested, in line with article 21(1)(f) of the Constitution and section 18 of the Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989), that you provide to us:

(i) a list of all actions that your office has taken since

(a) 2016 when Act 921 was passed, and

(b) 2017 when the Supreme Court decision was made;

(ii) the status of all such actions; and

(ii) copies of

(a) the annual reports that you have submitted in line with section 85(2) of Act 921, and

(b) actions and processes taken pursuant to the Supreme Court decision.

We further indicated that while we would appreciate it if the information was delivered to us in hard copy and/or electronic form, and we were happy to provide the necessary computer drives for the electronic format.

It has been almost a year since we delivered the letter to you. You have neither acknowledged receipt of the letter nor provided the information we seek.

We write to repeat our constitutional demand for the information. If you fail or refuse to respond to our demand, we shall commence legal proceedings against you, including filing a petition to the Right to Information Commission.

Counting on your co-operation on this matter.

Yours in the service of God and Country,

OccupyGhana

cc. Speaker of Parliament

Parliament House

Accra

Minister for Finance

Ministry of Finance

Accra

Auditor-General

Office of the Auditor-General

Accra

The Executive Secretary

Right to Information Commission

Accra