The framers of the 1992 Republican Constitution of Ghana realised that the Controller and Accountant General and the Auditor- General alone cannot completely ensure the proper use and accountability of resources of Ghana. It is in this vein that Parliament has also been assigned some responsibility in the respect.
Required:
Assess the role of Parliament under the constitution in ensuring judicious use of the resources and proper accountability. (10 marks)
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The 1992 Constitution of Ghana gives Parliament the following roles in Public Accountability and judicious use of resources:
- Taxation: No taxation shall be imposed otherwise than by or under the authority of an Act of Parliament.
- Where an act of Parliament confers power on any person or authority to waive or vary any tax imposed by Parliament, the exercise of the power of waiver or variation in favour of any person or authority shall be subject to prior approval of Parliament by resolution.
- Apart from the Consolidated fund and Contingency fund, Parliament has the authority to establish other public funds by an act of Parliament.
- Parliament also has the power to authorise any authority or department to retain any revenue received by them for the purposes of defraying the expenses of that department.
- It is also Parliament that can authorise payment of monies into or withdrawal from the Contingency fund.
- No monies shall be withdrawn from the consolidated fund unless it is authorised by an appropriation act passed by Parliament or by supplementary estimate approved by a resolution passed by Parliament for that purpose.
- Parliament may by resolution authorised government to enter into an agreement for a loan out of any public fund or public account.
- Apart from the finance function, Parliament also has Public Accounts Committee which receives the annual report of the Auditor General
- The committee pursues the implementation of the recommendations of the Auditor General’s report to ensure that MDAs and MMDAs comply with the recommendations.