The Ministry of Finance says the mobilization and disbursement of funds for the COVID-19 responses have been in step with the Public Financial Management Act.
The Ghana audit service report on the federal government’s covid-19 expenditure for the interval going from March 2020 to June 2022 recorded varied infractions.
In all, GH¢21,844,189,185.24 (over a billion US $) was mobilised to mitigate the affect of COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana.
The 119-page lengthy report highlighted irregularities within the administration of some tranches of the funds.
Among them, is the fee of over 10 million cedis in insurance coverage premiums to cowl 10,000 frontline well being employees and allied well being professionals with no binding contract detailing amongst others who the beneficiaries are.
But the Finance ministry in response to the A-G’s report clarified that: “… as reported on web page 11, paragraph 31 of the report, the 53.8% and 46.2% spent on direct Covid-19 interventions and for common price range help respectively have been according to the mandate approved by Parliament.
Nonetheless, the Ministry indicated it welcomes the Auditor General’s report, and guaranteed the general public that steps are being taken to deal with the problems contained within the report.
“Meetings are being organised to have interaction with the implementing Agencies to judge actions taken to implement the audit suggestions within the audit report.
“Preparation of an Emergency Expenditure Management Guideline. This guideline will provide government with administrative protocols in times of emergency such as the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure compliance with relevant PFM regulations whiles providing timely responses.”
The assertion additional assured that the Ministry will apply its finest efforts to implement and improve expenditure administration and accountability to make sure correct utilization of tax income.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5 Fm
Source: starrfm.com.gh
