Government must properly account for Ghana @60 – Ablakwa

A former deputy Education Minister and ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said the minority will pressure government to properly account for its expenditure for the Ghana@60 celebrations.

In an interview with Accra based Radio Gold the MP for North Tongu said “we on the minority side are going to insist, we are going to keep filing questions raising the relevant questions, we are going to file another question on the private sector donation, we are going to file another question on the full break down, the full expenditure of the celebrations.”

“Swiftly and very quickly the government will have to come back to Parliament, we made it very clear yesterday that we are not satisfied, we cannot be impressed with the conduct of the government in this matter,” he noted.

Hon. Ablakwa described the inability of the deputy Finance Minister Hon. Kwaku Kwarteng to render proper accounts on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, July 20, 2017, as an embarrassment to government insisting they return to parliament to redeem their image.

The deputy finance minister Kwaku Kwarteng revealed on the floor of Parliament on Thursday that government allocated 5.26 million for the year-long celebrations.

“The Ministry of Finance released an amount of GH¢5.26 million cedis towards the celebration of the 60th independence anniversary of Ghana. This was made up of GH¢3.1 million from the government of Ghana sources of funding and GH¢2.16 million from the District Assembly Common Fund.

“Out of the total GH¢5.26 million, GH¢ 3 million went to the office of the Chief of Staff at the Ghana at 60 secretariats while GH¢100,000 and GH¢2.1 million went to the 100 regional coordinating councils and 216 district assemblies respectively”.