GH¢1.5 billion petroleum revenue not accounted for since 2017 – PIAC

An amount of GH¢1.5 billion petroleum revenue cannot be accounted for in the 2019 fiscal year, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has disclosed.

According to the committee, out of the GH¢2.7 billion accrued into the annual budget funding amount, the state only used GH¢1.2 billion with the remaining GH¢1.5 billion not utilized and not accounted for.

Technical Manager for PIAC Mark Agyemang told Starr News “we do not actually have any clear explanation on this. They asked the ministry for an explanation, and as at the time we were filing the report the ministry couldn’t provide us with an explanation.”

He added “and mind you this is not the first time, it started from somewhere 2013, the annual budget funding amount were not utilized and were not accounted for. But then this is the first time consecutively in terms of year that it has been three years running. The first time was in 2017 and now it has grown to GH¢1.5 billion Ghana cedis. And the question one would ask is where is the money?”.

“Because these monies were actually programmed for certain projects or activities to be undertaken. Have they been taken, and even if they are not taken, where is the money programmed for such activities?”

He concluded “As we are speaking, we have not had a concrete explanation from the ministry of finance. We’ve pushed buttons, we are actually trying to have a meeting with them on Thursday, Probably at that meeting, they would give us some explanation. But as at the time of completing this report, we sent several letters but they didn’t give us any explanation and this is the third consecutive year.”