Member of Parliament for Builsa South Dr. Clement Apaak
The Member of Parliament for Builsa South has raised questions over the misappropriation of COVID-19-related funds.
Dr. Clement Apaak says the government kept blaming COVID-19 as one of the reasons for our economic world when in actual fact the allocation for COVID-19 expenditure was misappropriated.
He said although COVID-19 gave the government so many funds, GH¢10 billion was used for unrelated activities.
The Auditor-General has revealed that the government spent GH¢10 billion of monies mobilised for COVID-19 activities on budget support.
According to the A-G, a total of GH¢21,844,189,185.24 was mobilised for the fight against the outbreak in Ghana.
However, out of this amount, only GH¢11,750,683,059.11 was spent on COVID-19/activities.
The A-G said the rest, per its records, was used for budget support.
“Out of GH¢21,844,189,185.24 mobilised, GH¢11,750,683,059.11 was spent on Covid-19 activities and the rest on budget support.
“On Covid-19 activities, we noted that GH¢8,658,496,124.96 was spent in 2020, GH¢3,084,311,725.45 in 2021, and GH¢7,875,208.70 in 2022 to mitigate the impact of coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in Ghana,” excerpt of the report said.
The report also revealed that $80m worth of vaccines paid for by the government has not been delivered.
According to the A-G, the government paid over $120m to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) but only $38m worth was delivered.
Meanwhile, the report also stated that over US$2.5bn (GH¢¢21bn) of monies mobilised for the fight against Covid-19, only 25% (¢5.5) was used on health.
The A-G added that the balance was spent on government programmes such as Free SHS and LEAP, among others.
Aside from these figures, GH¢605,000 of Covid-19 funds was paid to chiefs using Covid funds unaccounted for. GH¢150,000 of that amount was misapplied.
Dr. Apaak reacting to this slammed the government and wondered why it would misapply funds meant for COVID-19 expenditure and later blame its recklessness and mismanagement on something else.
He tweeted saying “Explosive. Covid-19 gave gov’t so much funds, 10b was used for activities unrelated to Covid. How can a pandemic which gave gov’t a windfall be a reason for our current economic woes.”
