Domelevo was sacked because of inquiry into COVID-19 expenditure – Banda MP

Ibrahim says govt is running from accountability on COVID-19 expenditure

Govt cannot account for GH¢32 COVID-19 income - MP

Ofori-Atta has already accounted for COVID-19 expenditure – Joe Wise

Banda Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Ahmed, has alleged that the former Auditor General, Daniel Yao Domelevo, was forced to leave office because he was about to start an inquiry into the COVID-19 expenditure.

According to him, should Domelevo have remained in office, there will be no need to set up committees to investigate issues surrounding Ghanaian COVID-19 expenditure.

He indicated that the government is now conveniently saying that the Auditor General’s office can investigate Ghana’s COVID-19 expenditure just to run away from a probe suggested by the minority caucus of parliament.

“... Ato Forson (former duty finance minister) wrote to Domelevo and asked him to investigate the government’s COVID-19 expenditure ... as soon as the letter was received Domelevo was forced to vacate his post.

“Should the government have initially allowed the auditor general (Domelevo) to go on with the special investigation, there will be no need for a bipartisan committee of parliament on Sputnik V which led to the recovery of US$ 2.8 million,” he said in Twi in an interview with Neat FM translated by GhanaWeb.

The member of parliament (MP), who is also the deputy minority whip in parliament, said if the government had nothing to hide, it should let the committee suggested by the minority caucus be created so that the truth will come to light.

“The government got GH¢32 billion, an as MP and deputy minority whip, I cannot even say want the money was used for. Even, if you asked the majority leader, he cannot give you the breakdown of the expenditure,” he said

Ibrahim Ahmed’s comments come after the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu dismissed the minority caucus’ motion for parliament to form a non-partisan committee to probe Ghana’s COVID-19 expenditure

In response to the comments made by Ibrahim, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Osei-Owusu, explained that he threw out the minority caucus’ motion to probe Ghana’s COVID-19 expenditure because there is no need for it.

According to him, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has already accounted for the expenditure in the 2022 budget, which the house has already adopted.

He also explained that there are already committees in parliament that are responsible for ensuring accountability for the nation’s resources; therefore, there is no need to set up a special committee to investigate the COVID-19 expenditure.