Govt spent Gh¢12billion on COVID in 2020- Finance Minister
Minister's account inaccurate, Isaac Adongo
Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central has noted that the Finance Minister’s account on the spending of COVID-19 monies is a clear indication of mismanagement.
Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, while answering some 16 questions on the floor of parliament noted that the government spent GH¢12.036 billion on the Coronavirus pandemic for 2020 and 2021.
"Mr. Speaker, a total amount of GH¢4.601 billion was programmed in the 2021 budget for COVID-19-related expenses. At the end of December 2021, total utilization was GH¢3.914 billion representing 85 percent utilization."
He also noted that for 2020, GH¢8.122 billion was expended to provide support to households, supply equipment, and provide relief to health workers, health infrastructure, security, operations, evacuations, quarantine and coordination, and economic relief, stabilization and revitalization, and COVID-19 complementary releases.
However, Isaac Adongo, in a JoyNews interaction noted that the minister’s account was not accurate.
“On the face of it, the Minister deepened the face of suspicions we all had. What the minister did here [parliament] today basically confirmed that something extremely untoward happened with the COVID-19 expenditure.
"And on the floor of the house, I proved based on the minister’s own document to this house that he failed to account for GH¢10billion of the monies that came to him. That is the magnitude of deception and the magnitude of the burden that he was running away from,” he said.
He also stated that even though the ministry attempted to explain the figures, their claims were deceptive.
“How can you explain away documents produced by the minister himself which are public records in the house, and parliament is a house of records? So, you don’t amend the records of parliament with another deception.”
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SSD/BOG
Isaac Adongo MP for Bolga Central