The Minority in Parliament wants the Acting Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah-Asiedu, to cause an audit of some GHȻ600m the Akufo-Addo-led government has purportedly expended on the Agenda 111 project.
Failure to do so, the minority threatens, will see the commencement of a process to recall Parliament from recess, to have a parliamentary committee investigate “the missing GHȻ600 million from the consolidated fund”.
This follows an earlier demand from the minority to the government to explain what the money was used for.
Read: Account for GH₵636m spent on Agenda 111 – Minority to Gov’t
According to the minority, the government has already made some expenses that it has not accounted for.
“The Minority in Parliament will like to call on the Akufo-Addo Administration to expeditiously account for a colossal sum of GH₵636 million already utilised on the Agenda 111 projects.
The Ministry of Finance in a Friday statement said “the money has been released into the project account at the BoG but not utilised yet”.
Not satisfied, the Minority, through Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, wants the process audited.
“We call on the Auditor General to immediately constitute an Audit team involving the services of a reputable international Audit Firm such as Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), to immediately Audit the processes leading to the supposed transfer and the expenditure of the 600 million between the Ministry of Finance, the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, the Bank of Ghana, the Ministry of Health and the Office of the Chief of Staff to ascertain the veracity of the claims of the Ministry of Finance”, parts of the Friday statement read.
“If the Auditor General fails to Act within 2 weeks, we will have no option than to start the processes of collecting enough signatures from Members of Parliament to trigger a recall of Parliament so that a committee of Parliament can investigate the Missing GH₵ 600 million from the consolidated fund”, it added.
Meanwhile, they are also demanding answers to the following questions:
- Did government release GH₵600 million for the Agenda 111 in 2020 as per the Ministry of Finance’s statement and when did this happen? Why was this not captured in the 2021 Budget?
- Which agency of government is implementing Agenda 111 and is that agency different from the agency holding custody of funds for the same project? Why?
- Are funds purported to be lodged at the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund meant for investment management or they are lodged there to be made available to the implementing agency on demand?
- Assuming that funds have been released for Agenda 111 projects, what has been the chain of custody of the funds since they left the Consolidated Accounts at the BoG?
- Can government, without releasing funds from the Bank of Ghana to the implementing agency admit to having released same and present same to parliament and the people of Ghana?
President Akufo-Addo Tuesday, August 17 cut the sod for the commencement of the project which is aimed at enhancing health infrastructure in the country.
Under the project, the government intends to within 18 months complete the construction of 101 District Hospitals, 2 psychiatric hospitals, 6 regional hospitals for the newly created regions and 1 regional hospital for the Eastern region as well as the redevelopment of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital.
By P.D Wedam|3news.com|Ghana