The Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Abena Osei-Asare, has called on managers of state-owned agencies to take full responsibility for the duties entrusted to them and act decisively when they assume office.
She said heads of public institutions should not use problems inherited from their predecessors as an excuse for failing to act.
Madam Osei-Asare was speaking on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, during a PAC working visit to the National Petroleum Authority (NPA). The visit was intended to give the Committee a first-hand understanding of the Authority’s operations.
She urged public officials to protect and diligently pursue the mandates given to them.
“I think that is what we should all do, that once we are entrusted with something we should take it serious and protect it and guard it and pursue it so that even the person who gave it to you will sit back and feel proud that I didn’t make a mistake,” she said.
Her comments followed praise for the Chief Executive of the NPA, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, who has taken steps to recover more than GH¢2 million that was misapplied by his predecessor.
Mr Tamakloe was not in office when the infraction took place, but Madam Osei-Asare said his decision to address the matter demonstrated the level of responsibility expected from heads of state agencies.
She described his response during his appearance before the PAC as exemplary and said other public officials should follow his example when dealing with institutional failures that occurred before their appointments.
“But for some of them we all see it when they come, ‘I wasn’t there, I came to meet this’ – it doesn’t matter what you came to meet, what have you done about it since? That is what we should do,” she stated.
Madam Osei-Asare said the Committee’s engagement with the NPA would help it understand the Authority’s work beyond the information presented during formal proceedings.
“And so today we are here to see for ourselves first-hand what exactly goes into the activities that you do,” she said.
The visit, she added, would allow members of the PAC to ask more informed questions in future.
“So we are happy to be here, we just want you to take us through so that when we sit back and we are also asking questions we know that really we know what we talking about,” she said.
