Mahama's allegations: A-G must audit COVID-19 relief funds - Nana Akomea

Managing Director of Intercity STC Coaches Limited, Nana Akomea has called on the Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, to audit the COVID-19 relief funds following allegations by Ex-President John Dramani Mahama during the 24th African Business Conference organized by the Harvard Business School.

Ex-President John Mahama accused the government of misappropriating the COVID-19 funds to a tune of GHC 33 billion which, to him, were pumped into President Akufo-Addo's 2020 re-election bid.

“Ghana’s fate was easy to predict with the cavalier handling of the economy by the current administration. We went into the pandemic without adequate buffers, and have emerged with a terribly battered economy,” he said.

He added; “To make matters worse, the pandemic windfall of over GH¢33 billion which could have cushioned the economy remains unaudited and is believed to have been used largely in the quest to win the 2020 elections at all cost.”

Mr. Mahama further said, “before the pandemic, poverty reduction was already a major challenge. The pandemic is estimated to have dragged about 55 million more people into poverty in Africa and exposed another 46 million more to the risk of hunger, and malnourishment. Indeed 70% of hunger in Africa, which had already been on the rise since 2014 is directly attributable to this pandemic”.

Nana Akomea welcomed what he believes is a challenge by the former President to the Auditor-General as he (Mahama) pointed out that the alleged monies are unaudited.

He implored the Auditor-General to give Ghanaians a true account of how the monies have been used.

"Auditing is always good for government. So, if the Auditor-General isn't yet ready, he should hasten to do the auditing so that we will all see the extent of the problem. It's good for the government to be accountable . . . I plead with the Auditor-General to move the audit of the COVID expenditure since 2019 to the front burner," he said on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme.