Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has told Parliament that government mobilised a total of GH¢18.19 billion to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country for 2020 and 2021.
However, it spent GH¢12 billion out of the total figure generated within the period in question
This was disclosed by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, when he delivered a statement in Parliament on Wednesday, June 22, 2022, on government’s Covid-19 response expenditure.
“Mr. Speaker, to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on businesses and households, ensure that economic activities recover and minimize job losses, government mobilised GH¢18.19 billion out of the programmed GH¢19.3 billion in 2020 from various funding sources,” the Minister said.
“Mr. Speaker, for the years 2020 and 2021, the programmed expenditure amounted to GH¢15,763.48 million for the COVID-19-related expenditures out of which the actual utilisation was GH¢12,036.41 million,” he added
Out of the Gh¢18.19 billion, the government budgeted Gh¢1,203,715,085.77 to finance the Coronavirus
Alleviation Programme.
Other Stories :
- GHS Warns: COVID-19 Infections Rising Steadily
- I Find It Disrespectful Dashing Money On Camera — Sarkodie Reacts To Stingy Perceptions
GH¢1.5 billion was disbursed under the Support to Households Programme, GH¢1 billion was allocated to health response supplies equipment and relief for health workers, and GH¢600 million was released to begin the construction [of Agenda 111 health facilities] across the country.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, when the Finance Minister appeared in the house to answer questions on government expenditure, the Minority said the minister’s accounting was not thorough enough.
“We cannot sit here and say the Minister of Finance should be the only one accounting for the COVID amount. The minister responsible for Finance is only a conduit for releasing the money. But the monies were spent at various MDAs,” Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam MP, Cassiel Ato Forson, said.
He said the various MDAs heads and COVID entities needed to account in detail on how they spent the money because of the gaps in the Finance Minister’s statement.
“I cannot ask the Minister responsible for Finance to give me the details to the fact that they spent $100 million on nose masks and hand sanitisers,” Mr. Forson said.
Mr. Forson proposed the committee be chaired by a member of the Minority “so that we can go into the details and all of us will be able to get the facts as we need to.”
But the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, pushed back against this call, saying the various committees in Parliament could scrutinise the expenditure.
He feels this situation is not exceptional enough to warrant an ad-hoc committee.
“Let us rely on the committees of Parliament. We don’t need a special committee. We don’t need an ad-hoc committee,” Mr. Afenyo-Markin argued.