According to him, the funds were used for their intended purpose when the pandemic hit.
Akufo-Addo stated that it was the government who requested the auditing of the COVID-funds, and assured that there was no mismanagement of the funds.
“Mr Speaker, it was Government that asked for the COVID funds to be audited, and I can assure this House that nothing dishonourable was done with the COVID funds. The responses from the Ministers for Health and Finance, on January 23 and 25, 2023, respectively, have sufficiently laid to rest the queries from the Auditor General’s report, and I believe any objective scrutiny of these statements from the Health and Finance Ministries would justify this conclusion,” he said on the floor of parliament while delivering the State of the Nation Address.
The President added that the current economic challenges can be traced to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic because the economy was growing at one of the fastest rates before the pandemic.
The State of the Nations Address is in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which states that the President shall deliver a message on the SONA to Parliament at the start of each session and before the dissolution of Parliament.
SONA is a constitutional obligation and yearly tradition where the Commander-In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces reports on the status of the country unveils the government’s agenda for the coming year and proposes to Parliament certain legislative measures.
Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana obliges Members of Parliament (MPs), the Speaker of Parliament, and the Judiciary to receive the President’s SONA.
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