Franklin Cudjoe backs calls for audit of COVID-19 expenditure

Franklin Cudjoe of IMANI Africa says what the Finance Minister presented to Parliament was an expenditure report of COVID-19 funds and not an audited account.

To him, it’s imperative that audits are run on the spending of the COVID-19 funds in order for the Minister to present an audited account to Parliament.

Franklin Cudjoe believes that presenting an audited account will help complete the accountability process.

“The Finance Minister presented an expenditure report of Covid-19 funds, not an audited account. The audit must be done to complete the accountability process,” he made this known in a tweet.

Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has denied claims that the government has not been transparent with its COVID-19 expenditure.

Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, June 22, 2022, the Minister said all programmed, mobilized and utilized funds pertaining to the coronavirus pandemic have been dully reported in line with the government’s commitment to accountability and transparency.

“Mr. Speaker, at this juncture, I wish to dispel the notion that there have been inconsistencies in government data on COVID-19. His Excellency the President intimated during that State of the Nation Address on 30th March, 2022, that we had mobilized about Gh¢17.7 billion since 2020 to fight the pandemic.

“We have subsequently reconciled the data and I can report that as of end-May, 2022, we have mobilized Gh¢18.19 billion to mitigate the effect of the pandemic. Again, when His Excellency the Vice President indicated on 7th April 2022 at the National TESCON Conference that Government had spent Gh¢8.1 billion on Covid-19, it was within the context of expenditures for 2020 as I have already indicated,” the Minister said.

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