Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has stepped down two special audit reports covering Ghana’s Embassy in Washington, DC, and the 13th All African Games after the Auditor-General withdrew the reports.

The Committee announced the development as it began examining the Auditor-General’s reports on financial irregularities recorded in 2025.

The special audit report on Ghana’s Embassy in Washington, DC, covered the period from 2017 to 2025.

According to the Public Accounts Committee, the report will not be considered during the current sittings because the Auditor-General has formally written to Parliament to withdraw it.

The Committee also said the special audit report on the 13th All African Games has been dropped and will not be examined at this stage.

Ms Osei Asare, speaking on the matter, said the decision followed a debriefing between the Committee and the Auditor-General.

“The special audit report on the Embassy of Ghana in Washington, DC, covering 2017 to 2025 will not be considered in these sittings.”

He explained that the Auditor-General communicated the withdrawal of the Embassy report to Parliament through a formal letter.

“Through a letter by the Auditor-General to Parliament has written to withdraw this particular report.”

On the 13th All African Games report, she said the Committee reached a similar decision following discussions with the Auditor-General.

“Again, the report on the 13th All African Games was also stepped down during our debriefing with the Auditor-General.”

She stressed that the withdrawal does not mean the matters contained in the reports have been permanently abandoned, indicating that the Committee will consider them when the reports are brought back.

“We will not be looking at these two reports until they are brought back to us again.”

The Public Accounts Committee said it was important for the public to be informed about the decision, given the Committee’s responsibility to examine findings contained in the Auditor-General’s reports.

The announcement comes as the Committee begins a broader examination of financial irregularities recorded in the 2025 audit reports.

While the two special audits have been removed from the current agenda, the Committee is turning its attention to the Auditor-General’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies Audit Report for 2025.

The report has identified financial irregularities amounting to GH¢5.2 billion.

The Committee says one of its major concerns is the scale of tax-related infractions contained in the report.

According to the Committee, approximately GH¢4.8 billion of the reported irregularities relate to tax infractions.

The Committee says it will seek answers on the nature of the tax breaches and determine what steps the relevant tax authorities have taken to address them.

“We see a reported financial irregularity of five point two billion. But the most alarming thing is the tax infraction of four point eight billion.”

The Committee intends to establish whether the affected institutions have taken corrective measures and whether the amounts involved have been recovered or otherwise addressed.

The Committee has also announced a change in the way it intends to examine audit findings.

Rather than simply asking institutions to respond to individual infractions, the Committee says it will focus more heavily on whether public institutions have acted on previous audit recommendations.

The move follows concerns that some institutions continue to appear in audit reports for similar control failures year after year.

The Committee says repeated findings may indicate that institutions are not implementing recommendations or correcting weaknesses identified by the Auditor-General.

“A legitimate concern of the Ghanaian public is that many audit findings appear year after year.”

The Committee says that where the same institution is repeatedly cited for the same control failure, the issue goes beyond the existence of an audit finding.

According to the Committee, institutions appearing before it will be expected to demonstrate what corrective action has been taken and how those measures have prevented the recurrence of financial irregularities.

The new approach is intended to make the parliamentary scrutiny of audit reports more focused on results and accountability rather than simply recording infractions.

For now, however, the special audit reports on Ghana’s Embassy in Washington, DC, and the 13th All African Games remain outside the Committee’s current proceedings following their withdrawal and subsequent stepping down.

The Committee says it will revisit both reports when they are formally brought back before it.