Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is MP for North Tongu
• Government is using COVID-19 as a pretext to engage in grand corruption
• North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa wants a forensic audit of COVID-19 spending
• He is worried that government is unable to even explain basic expenses
North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has averred that the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic has become an avenue to create, loot and share government funds.
According to him, the government claims to have spent some 21 billion cedis so far on the pandemic response but that it could barely account meaningfully for monies spent.
GhanaWeb monitored comments he made on the September 1 edition of Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme where he called for a forensic audit into COVID spending.
“COVID became an avenue to create, loot and share, if you read the Audit report and other things we will be revealing soon, look at what happened to the Sputnik V dubious vaccine issue,” he stated.
When his attention was drawn to the fact that Ghana has retrieved monies paid to the vaccine middlemen, he continued: “Should we even have gotten there in the first place? Russian Direct Investment Fund is there, deal with them directly; they put out many statements.
“The Embassy is there, we have an ambassador in Russia, deal directly with the manufacturers, we will not. We prefer to deal with dubious middlemen and shonky Sheikhs,” he added.
He is worried over recent disclosure that government used over 100 million dollars for face masks and other pandemic response supplies.
“So my brother, we hear there were over 100 million dollars for face masks and my brother…. The sad thing is that a lot of the things, they cannot even account for,” he observed pointing out inconsistencies and lack of transparency in repatriation figures and cost and payment of allowances to healthcare workers.
“We need a comprehensive forensic audit on all COVID expenditure, of all the over 21 billion we are told has been spent in the name of COVID, we need a comprehensive audit
The opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, has long accused the government of hiding behind COVID-19 to evade calls for accountability relative to COVID-19 procurement and spending, in the past, they have cited the Frontiers Health Services agreement, the Sputnik V botched procurement and the spending on Agenda 111 as typical examples.
