The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has directed two committees of Parliament to investigate the COVID-19 expenditure of the government.
They
will also probe the receipt and application of COVID-19 funds by the
government.
The
committees, Finance and Health, will submit their report to the House in the
first week of the next meeting of the House in October this year.
Mr Bagbin gave the directive on the
floor of Parliament yesterday when the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta,
appeared before the House to give account of how COVID-19 funds had been
expended.
The
ruling by the Speaker was made after the Minority called for an ad-hoc
committee to probe the utilisation of COVID-19 funds by the government.
Minority, Majority argue
While the Minority, led by its leader,
Haruna Iddrisu, pushed for the setting up of an ad-hoc committee to probe
COVID-19 expenditure, the Majority, led by its Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu,
argued that there were existing committees of Parliament that could be tasked
to investigate the matter, instead of a special committee.
After
the comments by both sides of the House, the Speaker said it had become
necessary for further investigation and inquiry into how COVID-19 funds were
utilised.
He
said the Finance Minister only came to give the broad outline of the
expenditure and, therefore, there was the need for Parliament to invite
ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), as well as the COVID-19 Trust
Fund, to come and give detail accounts on how the money they were given to
combat the pandemic was spent.
Legal justification
The
Speaker explained that the Finance Minister responded to calls by Parliament to
give account of how the funds were utilised through a statement under
Parliament's Standing Order 70.
While the Majority said the Auditor
General would audit the accounts of all entities that received and applied
COVID-19 funds, the Speaker said Article 103 (3) of the 1992 Constitution was
not the same as the functions of the Auditor General.
He
said there was a difference between investigation and inquiry into activities
and administration of the MDAs and auditing conducted by the Auditor General.
"There
is a difference and so we cannot say that because the Auditor General is going
to audit the accounts of the MDAs on the COVID-19 expenditure, Parliament is
disenabled from conducting an investigation and inquiry into the utilisation of
COVID-19 funds," Mr Bagbin said.
On that score, he said, Parliament had
a mandate to probe the utilisation of the funds
Why no special committee
On
the Minority's calls for an ad-hoc committee to be set up by Parliament to
investigate the matter, Mr Bagbin said there were already committees of
Parliament with the capacity to do so and, therefore, there was no need to set
up a special committee for that purpose.
He said the fact that some lives were
lost due to the pandemic did not mean that no work had been done in the
country.
"Some
work has been done, but that does not justify that we should not perform our
functions of ensuring that the money was utilised efficiently, effectively and
economically," he said.
"It
is very important for us to do that to allay the fears of the Ghanaian
people," he added.
Mr
Bagbin said it was in the interest of the Finance Minister, the Finance
Ministry and the government that they constantly informed the people about the
taxes and revenue generated on their behalf.
He said there was no witch-hunt in those matters, saying they constituted one of the effective tools for good governance.
Source:Graphic.com.gh