Pre-mature to audit Coronavirus Alleviation Response Programme - Minister

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister of Information on Thursday said it is pre-mature for the Minority in Parliament to call for a special audit of the COVID-19 Alleviation Response Programme whilst various intervention programmes are still ongoing.

The Information Minister explained that Article 187 of the 1992 Constitution stated that general auditing was supposed to be conducted at the end of the financial year.

Additionally, Section 16 of the Audit Service Act stipulated that in addition to the general audit, a special audit could be performed by the Auditor-General at the end of a financial year.

Mr Nkrumah was responding to a question from a journalist during a media briefing in Accra on the Minority's call for a special audit into the GHc280.3 million spent on supply of free food and water for Ghanaians during the lockdown.

The Information Minister said: "It is becoming increasingly clear that our colleagues in the Minority will always find an opportunity to raise controversy, with the hope to distract us from the COVID-19 Response Programme, but we'll not be distracted".

At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr Cassiel Ato Forson, the NDC Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, called for special audit of the COVID-19 Alleviation Response Programme, which government supplied free food and water to Ghanaians during the partial lockdown.