The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has demanded a stronger recovery mechanism from the Ministry of Health after 596 staff defaulted on loans obtained under its car revolving fund.
The defaults have left the Ministry with about GH¢10 million in total loan obligations, of which approximately GH¢8 million remains outstanding.
The PAC’s Ranking Member, Samuel Atta Mills, said the scale of the defaults exposed serious weaknesses in the management and recovery of public funds under the scheme.
Officials of the Ministry of Health, appearing before the Committee, attributed the repayment difficulties partly to weaknesses in internal control systems.
They disclosed that some beneficiaries had also unilaterally cancelled standing orders that had been established to facilitate monthly repayment of their loans.
However, Mr Atta Mills rejected the explanation and called on the Ministry to take direct responsibility for recovering the outstanding funds.
He criticised the Ministry for shifting responsibility to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) after providing the Authority with a list of beneficiaries.
“You are passing the buck. You’ve given the list to the DVLA. Was it DVLA who gave them those cars? Was it DVLA who organised that crime?” he asked.
The Ranking Member subsequently called for the establishment of a dedicated recovery unit or team to pursue beneficiaries who had defaulted and retrieve vehicles where necessary.
“What you need to do is to have a recovery unit. A recovery unit or a recovery team who will go and collect all these cars,” he said.
He argued that beneficiaries who had failed to honour their loan obligations should not continue to retain vehicles acquired through the scheme without meeting the repayment conditions.
“Somebody who will stop you in the middle of the highway and take the car away from you because you got it fraudulently,” he added.
Mr Atta Mills further criticised the Ministry for what he described as an attempt to shift responsibility for the weaknesses in the scheme to other institutions.
“We organise this crime and we blame everybody else while we are the criminals,” he said.
The PAC’s concerns centre on the Ministry’s ability to recover the outstanding GH¢8 million and strengthen controls to prevent similar defaults under the car revolving fund.
The Committee’s intervention is expected to put pressure on the Ministry to establish a more effective recovery mechanism and account for the public funds tied up in the scheme.
