Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has questioned the relevance and effectiveness of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), describing its sittings as wasteful exercises that fail to deliver accountability.
In a Facebook post, Manasseh took aim at the current PAC Chair, Abena Osei Asare, saying she lacks the moral authority to preside over hearings probing financial irregularities that occurred during her tenure as Deputy Minister of Finance.
“One is late (John Kumah). One has run away (Ken Ofori-Atta, leaving behind a trail of dirty footprints). And one (Abena Osei Asare) is enacting nuisance drama against new appointees who appear before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee to answer for the mess created by the administration she served as a Deputy Minister of Finance,” he wrote.
The journalist said the audit reports currently under review at the PAC cover periods of financial mismanagement that happened when Abena Osei Asare was part of the Ministry of Finance, questioning her impartiality in leading the committee.
Manasseh further argued that over the years, the PAC has failed to produce meaningful outcomes from its public hearings.
“PAC has not proven to be useful, besides wasting public funds and raising our emotional temperatures about the malfeasance the Auditor-General uncovers,” he stated.
“The moral authority of the current PAC Chair, Abena Osei Asare, who was Ken Ofori-Atta’s deputy, is being challenged. But the bigger question should be the usefulness of the annual drama we witness at the PAC sittings,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Member of Parliament for Gomoa Central, Kwame Asare Obeng, also known as A Plus, has petitioned Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin to remove Abena Osei Asare as Chairperson of the PAC.
In a letter dated November 2025, A Plus argued that her previous role as Deputy Minister of Finance compromises her neutrality in leading the committee tasked with ensuring financial accountability.
“It is deeply concerning that Hon. Abena Osei Asare, former Deputy Minister of Finance, now serves as the Chairperson of this important Committee,” the petition stated.
He maintained that her leadership “undermines the credibility” of the PAC due to her “close association with the Ministry of Finance during the tenure of Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta — a period defined by reckless borrowing, fiscal indiscipline, and multiple controversial contracts.”
A Plus urged the Speaker to “take immediate steps to safeguard the integrity, impartiality, and moral authority of both the Committee and Parliament as an institution.”
