COVID-19 Expenditure: Where Did the Ghc21bn go – Minority Leader asks

Leader of the Minority Group in Parliament and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tamale South Constituency, Haruna Iddrisu, has questioned the whereabouts of funds reported to have been spent by the Akufo-Addo led Government on COVID-19 related expenditure.

According to him, some 21 Billion Cedis budgeted for and which the government claims to have spent on COVID-19 related expenditure has not been adequately accounted for. He questioned why the government claims to have spent this amount and yet just a fraction of the population has been vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Mr. Speaker, it is only Ghana which has spent a whopping 21 Billion Ghana Cedis on COVID, yet less than 5% of its population is vaccinated. Where did the money go? You took money in the name of COVID, whether World Bank Rapid Credit Facility or money from the Stabilization Fund, and or other loans that you have taken; you have spent over 20 Billion; yet only 405,000 Ghanaians can boast that they have been vaccinated fully. What did you do with the money?

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“Yet in many other regions of Ghana, including six regions, you have not even established isolation and treatment centers; they have no emergencies; they have no oxygen available to them. What did you do with the 21 Billion, yet the population cannot be vaccinated?

“Mr. Speaker, when COVID came, the strategy medically to contain the public health epidemic was to test, isolate and treat. Now the world has learnt it lesson. The lesson is that a vaccinated population is less likely to be prone to COVID infections. So, why do you spend 21 Billion Ghana Cedis and yet you cannot even boast of a 1.5 million Ghanaians having access to the vaccines and yet you say you are doing well.”

These came up at the conclusion of the debate on the Mid-year Budget Statement presented to Parliament on Thursday, July 29, 2021 by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta.

The Finance Minister in accordance with Section 28 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) on Thursday 29th July, 2021, presented the mid-year fiscal policy review to Parliament, detailing the government’s programmes and policies for the rest of the year.

The Minority Leader and the Majority Leader took their turns on Tuesday, August 3, 2021 to draw the curtains on the debate which begun on Friday July 30, 2021.

Source: Clement Akoloh || parliamentnews360.com