Trades Minister, Hannah Tetteh has denied wasting 22 million Euros of funds meant for the Ghana Private Sector Development Fund (GPSDF) as reported by the Chronicle Newspaper.
The Italian-sponsored Fund is meant to provide medium and long-term loans for small and medium scale private sector industries.
Its implementation started in 2003 with a 10 million Euro fund from the Italian Government. The Tuesday December 21, 2010 edition of the Chronicle reported that an additional 22 million Euros approved by the Italian Government in December 2007 has still not been disbursed despite a directive to that effect by the Italian Coordinator, Fabio Tabbo.
According to the Chronicle, some Small Scale Enterprises are bemoaning the inability of the Trade Minister to disburse the funds to the beneficiaries.
They accuse Ms Tetteh of failing to appoint an external auditor to probe the disbursement of the first tranche to pave way for the disbursement of the second grant money.
However, in an interview, Ms Tetteh dismissed the allegations saying the Chronicle “got it all wrong.” According to her, the story put out by the Chronicle is from an uninformed position and is completely misleading.
She explained that an auditor is currently auditing the first tranche resulting in the delay of the disbursement of the second tranche.
“We have finally appointed an auditor who is currently auditing the first tranche of 10 million euros. It is when that audit is complete that as per the agreement we can disburse the second tranche and so that accounts for the delay.“…and so the story and the headline is completely misleading and creates the impression that the ministry has deliberately decided not to disburse these funds and shows no understanding of the issues at stake”.