[ 2016-06-30 ]

Drama at PAC sitting as Oye Lithur comes under attack
There was drama at the Parliament’s Public
Accounts Committee (PAC) sitting when the Gender,
Children and Social Protection Minister, Nana Oye
Lithur was attacked by a former Director for the
Department of Children, Mariama Yahaya.
Responding to a question regarding an unaccounted
Ghc14,000 flagged by the Auditor General, Oye
Lithur blamed the former director.

She disclosed “The ministry wrote to the former
director of the department of children and we
requested her to assist in addressing the issue
but she has not responded despite several visits
and several letters and reminders.”

With that explanation, the sector ministry said
the former director has some money for her travel
expenses still with them and pleaded the Committee
to give her the permission to use the money to
settle the debt.

But few minutes into the hearing, the former
Director Mariama Yahaya, who was watching the
proceedings on television, barged into the
conference room to accuse the minister of
arbitrarily interdicting her and replacing her
with someone else.

“The Hon. Minister,” she said, “wrongfully
interdicted me.”
According to her, “I was reinstated by the
Civil Service Council so I am still the director
for the department of children.”

She disclosed that as at the time the Auditors
went through the Department’s account books, she
had been replaced with someone else.

“So I had the privilege to be called to come
there and I went to explain to the Auditors that
that Ghc14,000 was for interviews I conducted,”
she said.
She told the Chairman of PAC that “All the
receipts were in my cabinet and the Minister had
changed the lock to my office when I got
there.”

She said if she had been granted access to the
office, she would have provided the necessary
receipts covering the expenditure to the
Auditors.

Mariama Yahaya was later to disclose to the media
that she has sued the minister over the way she
maltreated her.

Source - Myjoyonline.com

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