A govt without credibility to account for free SHS, deserves no right to collect e-levy - Dr. Apaak

The Member of Parliament for Builsa South Dr. Clement Apaak has not been truthful in its expenditure especially on the implementation of the free SHS policy.

The legislator noted that such a government cannot be trusted in managing the resources of the state.

He asserted in a statement he issued demanding accountability from the government on the expenditure of Ghc2.4 billion spent on free SHS without any budget allocation for same.

“This is yet another reason why we on the NDC side in Parliament stand with the good people of Ghana to say NO to E-levy. We will vote against E-levy. NO to Momo tax.”

He argued that the government claimed to have spent 5,174,021,968 (2017-2021) on free SHS.

“However, in the 2021 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy (29th July 2021) page 49, paragraph 284, it is contained that since the inception of the fSHS government has invested 7.62 billion (7,620,000,000) to implement the fSHS programme.

Based on items 4 and 5 above, government has expended an additional 2.4 billion (2,445,978,032) on the fSHS programme, which was not budgeted for in the 2021 budget. So far all efforts to get government to account for this extra 2.4 billion has failed.

This is after the Minister for Finance failed to tell Parliament exactly what accounted for the additional expense on Wednesday, July 21st 2021 (Official report columns 044 to 045). He promised to get full details for me, I’m still waiting.”

The MP who is also a Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament said the government has no credibility in collecting the momo tax when it had not been able to account for the expenditure on free SHS.

“Note that the same 2021 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review on page 101, Appendix 4E stated that GHC598 million was allocated and released as COVID-19 expenditure to prepare schools for mass reopening.

As well, the Committee on Health indicates that government spent GHC96 million on PPEs for the Ministry of Education when the Ministry of Health attended upon the Committee on Health to defend its Budget request for 2022.

From the above, it’s clear that: a) 598 million (see item 6), and 98 million (see item 7) went to Covid-19 expenditure for schools,” he said.

His statement read: “Consequently, the additional 2.4 billion expenditure between 2020 and 2021 assigned to fSHS, increased the expenditure for fSHS since its inception, 2017, to date, 2021 from GH 5,274,021,968 (5.3 billion) to 7,620,000,000 (7.62 billion).

Government must account for the GH2.4 billion additional fSHS expenditure. The Nana Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government cannot ask Ghanaians to pay new taxes when it cannot account for 2.4 billion additional expenses on fSHS.

What was the additional money used for? Was the allocated 1.9 billion for the period not enough? Why was an additional 2.4 billion expended within the same period, one year? Government must account for these monies,” he added.