OccupyGhana Blasts Office Of Attorney-General
OccupyGhana, a pressure group is boiling with anger at the Office of the Attorney-General for what it describes as the office decision to ignore two of its letters requesting information on whether or not the Office had complied with section 85(2) of Act 921.
Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu Greater 
OccupyGhana, a pressure group is boiling with anger at the Office of the Attorney-General for what it describes as the office decision to ignore two of its letters requesting information on whether or not the Office had complied with section 85(2) of Act 921.
In a press statement issued Monday July 4, 2022 and copied to Soireenews.com the group stated that; "On 30 June 2021, we wrote a letter (ref OG/2021/002) to the Office of the Attorney-General requesting information on whether or not the Office had complied with section 85(2) of Act 921.
However, the statement stated that the Office ignored this request, adding that On 7 June 2022, we wrote a follow up letter (ref OG/2022/008) to the Office, which has also been ignored.
"As citizens of Ghana, we are interested in ascertaining whether these demands of the Act and the orders of the Supreme Court are being met," the statement noted.
The statement therefore request that, in line with article 21(1)(f) of the Constitution and section 18 of the Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989), that the Commission compels the Attorney-General to make available to the group a list of all actions or steps that the Attorney-General has taken since 2016 when Act 921 was passed and 2017 when the Supreme Court decision was made.
The statement further requested the Office of the Attorney-General to make available to the group the status of all such actions or steps as at the date of this letter, and copies of the annual reports that the Attorney-General has submitted in line with section 85(2) of Act 921, and actions and processes taken pursuant to the Supreme Court decision.
"We would appreciate it if the information is delivered to us in hard copy and/or electronic form, and we are happy to provide the necessary computer drives for the electronic format.
"We have attached copies of our letters dated 30 June 2021 and 7 June 2022 requesting the above information from the Attorney-General for your ease of reference.We look forward to receiving the information requested," the statement stressed.
The statement asserted that the OccupyGhana is a good governance pressure group, registered as a guarantee company under the laws of the Republic of Ghana, and all of whose members and executive are citizens of Ghana.
In 2016, the statement noted that Parliament passed the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) to ‘to regulate the financial management of the public sector within a macroeconomic and fiscal framework, to define responsibilities of persons entrusted with the management and control of public funds, assets, liabilities and resources, to ensure that public funds are sustainable and consistent with the level of public debt, to provide for accounting and audit of public funds and to provide for related matters.’
In line with this preamble, it said section 85(2) of Act 921 imposed an obligation on the Attorney General to, upon the release of the Auditor-General’s Annual Reports and recommendations of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, take action and submit an annual report on the status of any such action to the Finance Minister, Auditor-General and Parliament.
Additionally, the statement pointed out that the Supreme Court has affirmed the Attorney-General’s obligation to take action on the Auditor-General’s reports in OCCUPYGHANA v ATTORNEY-GENERAL [2017-2018] 2 SCLRG 527 at 568, as follows: ‘the Attorney-General is hereby ordered to take all necessary steps to enforce the decisions or steps taken by the Auditor-General supra to ensure compliance including in some cases criminal prosecutions.’
