NDC Member of Parliament for Ketu North and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee says, Judges who bought vehicles at low prices cannot be blamed as they only bought the cars are the valued prices.
The Member of Parliement was reacting to the Auditor General’s report on Joynews interview which has named some judges for buying state cars at low prices.
According to the Auditor General’s report, those auction did not go through the appropriate procedure and called for the vehicles to be retrieved.
How reacting to the report, Mr. Avedzi said, blaming the judges would be out of place as they only bought the vehicles are the prices valued by the State Transport Company.
“It depends on the usage of that vehicle; Before you buy that vehicle, the vehicle would be taken to the State Transport Company for evaluation. State Transport Company will value the vehicle and then give a base price, below which the car should not be sold. So if the State Transport Company gives a base price which is low, the officer who bought the vehicle cannot be blamed for that because that is the price given by the State Transport Company.”
However, Mr. Avedzi was of the opinion that, the actual problem is with the processes which were not followed and that renders the auction and purchase problematic.
“That is where we have an issue. Officers who use saloon cars, going on retirement are offered a vehicle, the price which they are offered is determined by the State Transport Company, if these procedures were no followed then we have an issue with what happened with the Judiciary and that is why the Auditor General reported on it, “he said.
The Lawmaker however said the Judges cannot absolve themselves from what has been reported in the report and the criticism by some Ghanaian because they should have checked that the procedure has been followed.
“The Judicial service is not buying the vehicle for them and dashing it to them, it is you; you are being offered so you have to ensure that the State Transport Company do the valuation then you pay the money; the money will be paid by the Judicial service; then the Judicial service will then pay the money to the government coffers.” he narrated.
source: theGhanaianvoice.com
