Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has said the Finance Minster Ken Ofori-Atta must render an account to Parliament on the utilization of Covid funds.
It is only after this accountability that the House will consider approving or otherwise another loan.
“The Ministry of Finance must give an account of all the monies that it has gotten for the management of COVID-19. Only after that will this house consider approving or otherwise another loan,” Mr Bagbin said in Parliament on Thursday May 26 while placing a freeze on the approval of a 75 million euro loan for COVID-19 Response contracted from the European Investment Bank by the Government of Ghana.
He added “I direct that the Minister of Finance appears before this House to account for all the monies that were approved for the utilisation of the covid pandemic.”
The government had been called upon to render an account of the funds spent on managing the Covid situation.
For instance, Former President John Dramani Mahama who accused the government of mismanaging the funds dared the President Akufo-Addo to challenge his claim by allowing an independent forensic audit into how Covid-19 funds were used.
Mr Mahama accused the government of diverting funds during a lecture at the Harvard Business School “…to make matters worse a pandemic windfall in excess of Ghs33bn which could’ve cushioned the economy remain unaudited and it is believed to have been used largely in a quest to win election 2020 at all cost” he told participants.
Speaking at the 4th summit of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Professionals Forum in Kumasi recently, he maintained his claim and challenged the government to prove him wrong with a forensic audit.
“The only way you can prove me wrong and say that that money was not used for election 2020 is to allow an independent forensic audit into how the money was used,” he said.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana