As the debate on the record of the Akufo-Addo administration relating to protecting the public purse rages on, we must be equally concerned and outraged at what the Auditor-General has discovered which are contained in his 2020 audit report submitted to Parliament last week.
The audited public sector accounts (General Government) for the year ending 31st December, 2020 reveals rather shockingly a staggering budget overrun of GHS8,827,394,033. (That is over US$1.4billion)
In what appears to be a free-for-all spending frenzy, the Office of Government Machinery where the presidency is located, spent an excess GHS54,055,032 in addition to the GHS4,395,894,365 approved by Parliament for that office.
Jean Mensa’s Electoral Commission also overshot its budget by a whopping GHS158,743,269. This is after spending the GHS1,521,900,898 it was allocated.
The Energy Ministry would not be outdone. They spent in excess of their approved budget by a colossal GHS4,168,960,948. That was in addition to the GHS6,322,465,995 approved for them by Parliament.
The Ministry for the Interior was not left out of the spending binge, they accumulated a massive GHS2,390,985,300 after exhausting their approved allocation of GHS6,014,660,482.
Auditor-General Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu makes clear in his findings that these budget overruns blatantly offend The Appropriation Act, 2019 (Act 1008) and Section 29 of the PFM Act.
At this rate, one is left wondering not only if there’s anything left in the public purse but whether at all the public purse can still be found.
GHANA IS BLEEDING