President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has denied claims that the administration misappropriated cash earmarked for the country’s fight against COVID-19.
According to the Auditor General’s audit report, the Information Ministry inappropriately rewarded its staff GH151,500 for COVID-19 insurance while failing to provide $81 million in government-paid vaccinations.
The state is alleged to have spent US$607,419.02 out of a total of $4,049,460.12 on the purchase of 26 ambulances, however, the vehicles were never delivered.
The administration replied to the public outrage by noting that the monies spent for direct COVID-19 interventions and general budget assistance were in compliance with the mandate established by Parliament and the Public Financial Management Act.
In delivering the State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Wednesday, President Akufo-Addo defended the expenditure, claiming that charges that the government misappropriated monies are both baseless and a fiction of one’s imagination.
“The economic consequences of the pandemic have been devastating. It is precise because the economic fallout from the pandemic was so widespread and long-lasting that it is important to show clearly that the COVID funds were not misused. It is critical that we do not lose the confidence of the people that a crisis that they were led to believe we were all in together was abused for personal gain.
“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 added.
