Two senior public officials have been summoned by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Ghanaian Parliament to answer for GH¢8.2 million in toilet building contracts after important documents were not presented during a hearing.
The directive came after Ahmed Ibrahim, Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy, and Religious Affairs, appeared before the committee on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, to address questions raised by the Auditor-General’s special audit report on unfulfilled government commitments and claims as of December 31, 2024.
The sum in question is related to a “toilet-for-all” initiative that was started in 2019 under the previous Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources. It involved contracts to build 200 household toilets in Tamale and 300 in Kumasi.
Solomon Incho, the chief accountant for the Ministry, informed the committee that despite receiving mobilisation payments, contractors did not start work on the site.
He stated that once a monitoring team visited the sites and discovered that no work had been done, the contracts were cancelled and reassigned.
Mr. Ibrahim told the committee that attempts to get documents for auditing purposes had failed because the records had been moved to the National Archives, according to representatives of the now-defunct Sanitation Ministry.
Noting that the transactions were quite recent, he characterised the explanation as unacceptable.
The minister named two public servants who managed the contracts: Bright Oduro Kwarteng, who is currently Director of Finance at the Ministry of Trade and Agribusiness, and Theophilus Okine, who is currently employed by the Ministry of Defence.
Mr. Incho also informed the committee that because there was no supporting documentation, no payments had been paid for the contracts.
He clarified that while arrangements were in place to cancel and repackage the contracts, the process was not finished prior to the dissolution of the Sanitation Ministry.
Abena Osei-Asare, the committee’s chairperson, questioned why records pertaining to such recent transactions would be stored and whether the action was meant to conceal information from auditors.
She added that other ministries had followed similar orders and that the committee had asked all officials involved in the transactions to show up.
Given his prior involvement in opposition, Mr. Ibrahim acknowledged the worries and warned against any impression of personal prejudice.
Mrs. Osei-Asare stated that everyone connected to the transactions would need to show up with the necessary paperwork after the committee instructed its clerk to create an exhaustive list of all officials and contractors involved for a formal summons.
The GH¢8.2 million is a portion of the ministry’s larger GH¢3.1 billion in unreconciled outstanding commitments.
According to Mr. Incho, the amount includes GH¢1.2 billion for market construction projects at Black Star and Commerce, where payments were handled by the Ministry of Finance, and GH¢1.5 billion in sanitation-related claims processed through the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department without supporting documentation at the time of the audit.
He stated that when the projects were verified to be finished, GH171,475.81 pertaining to the building of senior staff bungalows for Regional Coordinating Councils had been omitted.
The two directors, current ministry officials, representatives from the Ministry of Finance, and officials from the Auditor-General’s Department were all expected to attend the committee’s next hearing.
Source: newsthemegh.com