The Chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Abena Osei-Asare, has said there was no conflict of interest in her role, as alleged by Gomoa Central Member of Parliament Kwame Asare Obeng, also known as A Plus.
She said, per the Standing Orders of Parliament, she can continue her leadership of the oversight body, rejecting claims of conflict of interest and calls for her removal.
Mrs Osei-Asare, who is also the Member of Parliament for Atiwa East in the East Region, addressed the issue during an interview on Monday, November 10.
Her remark followed a petition sent to the Speaker of Parliament by the MP for Gomoa Central, Kwame Asare Obeng, asking the Speaker to remove her from the position.
In his petition dated November 2, Mr Obeng argued that Mrs Osei-Asare had “no moral authority to lead the PAC”, having previously served as Deputy Minister of Finance during a period when many of the matters now before the committee arose.
Responding to the petition, Mrs Osei-Asare said Parliament’s Standing Orders already address possible conflicts of interest.
“In Order 229(4) of our Standing Orders, it says that when issues or reports from the Auditor-General pertain to a year in which the chairperson was in government, proceedings will be taken over by the ranking member,” she explained on Channel One TV,
She said she had consistently applied that rule.
“Recently, you will see me announcing that a particular report pertains to 2024, a period I was in government, so I cede the chairmanship role to my ranking member,” she added.
Mrs Osei-Asare, a chartered accountant and economist, served as Deputy Minister of Finance from 2017 until her promotion to Minister of State at the Finance Ministry in 2024. She maintained that she is qualified for the position and was chosen by her caucus to head the committee.
“It is something I want to do, and I am qualified to do it as well,” she said.
When asked whether she saw any moral issue with chairing a committee that reviews reports covering her tenure in government, Mrs Osei-Asare cited past practice.
“This has been done before. In 2017, the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee worked on reports that covered periods when their government was in power,” she said, referring to former PAC Chair Dr James Klutse Avedzi. “What matters most is what you set out to achieve.”
Mrs Osei-Asare stressed that the PAC operates with bipartisan oversight in line with constitutional provisions.
“We want to promote fairness, proper accountability, and transparency. Parliament has already made provision for that,” she said.
“Most people do not understand the work we do. We are not there to raise tensions or to attack anyone. We are fulfilling our constitutional mandate,” she said.
She added that Parliament is considering linking budget approvals to compliance with PAC recommendations to strengthen accountability.
“We are proposing that Parliament should not approve a ministry’s budget until it has implemented our recommendations. We believe this will advance accountability,” she said.
Mrs Osei-Asare also disclosed that, working with the Auditor-General, the committee had helped recover about GH¢12 billion over the years from misappropriated funds, tax irregularities, and procurement breaches.
READ ALSO: A Plus petitions Speaker to remove Abena Osei Asare as Public Accounts Committee Chair
Already, the Akim Swedru MP, Kennedy Osei Nyarko, on his part, has described the petition as “dead on arrival” and urged Mr Obeng to withdraw it to avoid embarrassment. He maintained that the Speaker had no constitutional or procedural authority to remove a Member of Parliament from a committee.