Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Accountability in COVID-19 Fund appropriate

On Sunday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said in a nationwide broadcast that the COVID-19 pandemic was not used as a conduit by his government to siphon money or engage in corrup­tion.

He added that he had asked the Auditor-General to investigate the COVID expenditures and that the re­lated parliamentary processes were being followed.

His comments apparently are to confirm the position he made on March 8, when he delivered this year’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament and pointed it out that nothing untoward or dishonourable had been done with the COVID-19 moneys.

It will be recalled that COVID-19 hit the country in March 2020 with all its devastation of worsening other illnesses and deaths of a number of patients, as well as the disruption of livelihoods with the related implications.

As a result, there arose the urgent need to fight the pandemic by way of testing, treatment or management, and also do things like pro­viding free water and electric­ity for the people to reduce their suffering.

As expected, funds for all these were needed, and so a COVID-19 Fund was estab­lished, and it received support from various sources, includ­ing the World Bank, Bank of Ghana and the country’s missions abroad.

Since the inception of the disbursement of moneys from the COVID-19 Fund, rumours have been rife that the Fund is infested with corrupt deals.

As if to affirm the ru­mours, the Auditor-General in January this year published a report on some so-called infractions in the govern­ment’s handling of expendi­ture of the COVID-19 Fund from March 2020 to June 2022.

Among other infractions were the payment of a total of US$607,419.02 out of US$4,049,460.12 for the purchase of 26 ambulances that were never delivered; the payment of unapproved GH¢151,500 by the Infor­mation Ministry to its staff as COVID-19 insurance, and payment of $80 million for vaccines by the government that were never delivered.

The report also indicated that the country lost over GH¢1billion through various irregularities, including unap­proved and illegal payment of allowances.

As already mentioned, on March 8, President Akufo-Addo, his SONA, parried all allegations of cor­ruption related to the Fund.

We are in a democracy where free speech relating to opinions on various issues is allowed.

Therefore, moments after the 2023 SONA, a Research Fellow at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Develop­ment (CDD-Ghana), Dr Kwame Asiedu Sarpong, de­scribed President Akufo-Ad­do’s comment as laughable.

To him, in the face of the revelations of the Audi­tor-General, it was clear the appropriation of the COVID-19 Fund had not been prudently done.

Dr. Asiedu Sarpong’s position seems to be shared by many, and so the rumours, perceptions and various opinions linger on.

Today, certain individuals, groups and organisations, particularly the Minority in Parliament, still demand accountability in the use of monies the country received in fighting the pandemic.

We hope the whole nation will have the patience and wait for the Parliamentary processes the Auditor-Gener­al’s COVID-19 Fund inves­tigation is going through to end.

Accountability is critical in democracy, and we should use the COVID-19 Fund case to stoke the fire of ac­countability in the country.