The Minority has proposed the setting
up of an ad-hoc committee to thoroughly probe the expenditure of COVID-19
funds.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday,
when the Finance Minister appeared in the house to answer questions on
government expenditure, the Minority said the minister’s accounting was not
thorough enough.
“We cannot sit here and say the
Minister of Finance should be the only one accounting for the COVID amount. The
minister responsible for Finance is only a conduit for releasing the money. But
the monies were spent at various MDAs,” Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam MP, Cassiel Ato
Forson, said.
He said the various MDA heads and
COVID entities needed to account in detail on how they spent the money because
of the gaps in the Finance Minister’s statement.
“I cannot ask the Minister responsible
for Finance to give me the details to the fact that they spent $100 million on
nose masks and hand sanitisers,” Mr. Forson said.
Mr. Forson proposed the committee be
chaired by a member of the Minority “so that we can go into the details and all
of us will be able to get the facts as we need to.”
The Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander
Afenyo-Markin, pushed back against this call, saying the various committees in
Parliament could scrutinise the expenditure.
He feels this situation is not
exceptional enough to warrant an ad-hoc committee.
“Let us rely on the committees of
Parliament. We don’t need a special committee. We don’t need an ad-hoc
committee,” Mr. Afenyo-Markin argued.
Minister’s account
Ken Ofori-Atta noted that GH¢ 12 billion was expended to mitigate the effect of the pandemic.
Under this, GH¢1.5 billion was
disbursed under the Support to Households Programme, GH¢1 billion was allocated
to health response-supplies equipment and relief for health workers, GH¢600
million was released to begin the construction across the country and a further
GH¢763.92 million has been released to continue the construction of the 111
district hospitals.
The government also programmed GH¢875
million for security operations, evacuation of Ghanaians stranded abroad, and
coordination of MMDAs’ sanitation and disinfection exercises.
Source:citinewsroom