About 596 staff of the Ministry of Health (MoH) have failed to repay vehicle loans granted under the Ministry’s car revolving fund, resulting in a debt of about GH¢10 million.
The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, Samuel Atta Mills, has described the situation as “organised crime”, with nearly GH¢8 million of the amount still unpaid.
Officials of the Ministry, who appeared before the Committee, said some of the beneficiaries had on their own cancelled the standing orders they had set up for the monthly deductions.
They blamed the development on lapses in the Ministry’s internal controls.
However, Mr Atta Mills dismissed the excuse and faulted the Ministry for trying to shift blame to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) after handing over the list of beneficiaries to the Authority.
“You are shifting blame. You gave the list to the DVLA. Did DVLA give them the cars?
Did DVLA organise that crime?” he queried.
He urged the Ministry to set up a special team to recover the vehicles from all defaulters. “What you need is a recovery unit. A recovery team that will go after all these cars. Someone who will stop you on the highway and seize the car because you acquired it fraudulently,” he said.
Mr Atta Mills further accused the Ministry of refusing to accept responsibility for the mess and said institutions that superintended the scheme should not blame others for its poor implementation.
“We organise this crime and we blame everybody else while we are the criminals,” he added.
