NDC MP for Ketu North and member of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, Edem Agbana, has defended the committee’s role amid calls by Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin for a separate bipartisan committee to investigate alleged losses involving GoldBod.
Speaking on The Agenda on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, Mr. Agbana said the Public Accounts Committee was already bipartisan, with 25 members and an opposition MP serving as chairman.
He said the committee has the constitutional and parliamentary mandate to examine issues contained in the Auditor-General’s reports, including matters involving state-owned enterprises.
Mr. Agbana acknowledged that Parliament could establish an ad hoc committee where it considered it necessary, but said proponents of such a move must explain why the Public Accounts Committee lacked the capacity to handle the matter.
He also rejected the suggestion that a loss recorded by a state-owned enterprise automatically constituted a crime, saying losses could result from government policies such as subsidies. According to him, wrongdoing would arise where losses were linked to procurement breaches, weak internal controls or managerial inefficiency.
Mr. Agbana said GoldBod had already appeared before parliamentary committees, including the Economy and Finance Committees, while questions about its operations had also been raised before the Public Accounts Committee.
He further challenged claims that GoldBod had recorded losses, saying he had reviewed the 2025 Auditor-General’s report but had not found where such losses were reported.
“Maybe because of how voluminous these books are, I have not yet gotten to the page where the Auditor-General has captured GoldBod as having recorded losses,” he said.
He called for the debate to focus on the appropriate parliamentary process for establishing accountability, while urging greater attention to the management and financial performance of state-owned enterprises.
By Julius Blay
