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A Deputy Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of\u00a0Parliament, Mr.\u00a0Isaac Adongo\u00a0has challenged the figures put out by the Minister for Finance, Mr.\u00a0Ken Ofori-Atta\u00a0on the Covid-19 expenditure.<\/p>\n
According to the Member of\u00a0Parliament\u00a0(MP) for Bolgatanga Central, Ghana\u2019s Minister for Finance was untruthful with the information he shared on the floor of\u00a0Parliament\u00a0on June 22, 2022, while accounting for the country\u2019s Covid-19 expenses.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the media after the presentation, the Bolgatanga Central MP insisted that there is still the need for further probe into the Covid-19 expenditure to ascertain the actual amount accrued to the government and its expenditure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t know how this man (Ken Ofori-Atta) thought that he will just come and bamboozle us and get away with it. No wonder he has been running away from accountability and from\u00a0Parliament\u00a0all this while. People who contested elections openly claimed that they were given allocations of Covid money to spend, yet most of these monies did not even come as free money. People cannot hide behind Covid to plunder the public purse. They must account for it and the more open that process is, the better it is in claiming back the credibility of\u00a0Parliament\u00a0and the government architecture we set for ourselves,\u201d Mr. Adongo reiterated.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs in the August House, led by the Ranking Member of the Finance Committee have earlier argued that they wanted an ad-hoc parliamentary committee to investigate the government\u2019s expenditures, besides the account rendered by Mr.\u00a0Ken Ofori-Atta.<\/p>\n
The Bolgatanga Central Lawmaker, contended that the Auditor General whom the Majority group in\u00a0Parliament\u00a0is asking to take charge of the audit of covid-19 expenditure lacked the capacity to do a thorough job as his work only entails checking for expenditures of ministries, departments, and agencies and not special incidents such as Covid-19 expenditures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe argument that the Auditor General will audit the accounts and so that suffices (is not right). The Auditor-General does not produce a special account on COVID-19 and related revenue and expenditures. He only reports the figures of total government expenditure and revenues from Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, we are not looking at those numbers, we are looking at revenues or total mobilization and expenditures in relation to Covid-19 activities and there is no way the Auditor General\u2019s reports can cover those matters so that has to be done by special arrangements. I am happy that the Speaker approved that this is investigated as a special activity,\u201d Mr. Adongo stated.<\/p>\n
He further noted that the Speaker of\u00a0Parliament\u2019s final decision for a joint Health and Finance Committee\u2019s investigation into the expenditure will suffice.<\/p>\n
But a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr. John Ampontuah Kumah says Mr. Ofori-Atta was forthright with his presentation to Members of\u00a0Parliament\u00a0on Wednesday, June 22, 2022.<\/p>\n
Speaking to some members of the\u00a0Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC) after answering some questions on behalf of the Minister, Mr. Kumah maintained that the Minister or government has nothing to hide.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been transparent in the handling of the Covid-19 funds,\u201d he reiterated.<\/p>\n
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