Samuel Atta Mills labels GH₵10m health car loan debt organised crime

The Ranking Member of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Samuel Atta Mills, has described the Ministry of Health’s failure to recover outstanding car loans as a form of "organised crime." During a committee sitting, the Ministry was questioned about a car revolving fund that has seen 596 staff members default on their repayments. The total debt involved in the scheme amounts to approximately GH₵10 million, of which GH₵8 million remains unpaid by the officials who benefited from the credit facility. Officials from the Ministry of Health attributed the significant repayment backlog to several systemic issues, including the cancellation of standing orders by staff and fundamental flaws in internal control mechanisms. However, the PAC was not satisfied with these explanations. Samuel Atta Mills criticized the Ministry for what he perceived as a deflection of responsibility, specifically pointing to instances where the Ministry appeared to shift blame onto the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) for tracking and recovery failures. To address the persistent debt, the PAC called for the immediate establishment of a dedicated recovery unit within the Ministry of Health. This unit would be tasked with the physical retrieval of vehicles from defaulters who have failed to meet their financial obligations. The committee signaled that it would continue to maintain close scrutiny over the fund's management to ensure that the outstanding GH₵8 million is returned to the state coffers and that accountability is restored within the Ministry’s financial operations.