Gov’t has been on a spending spree - Nana Akomea

Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) believes the government has been on a spending spree at the expense of the welfare of the citizenry.

Speaking on Peace FM on Tuesday, Nana Akomea revealed that the Ministry of Youth and Sports as at October to December last year squandered several amounts of money to a tune of 3 trillion cedis (300 million cedis in the new currency).

He also disclosed that not only the Youth and Sports Ministry misappropriated funds in the last quarter of 2012, but the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology also swept under the carpet a whopping sum, also to a tune of 60 million cedis.

Office of the President, he revealed during an interview with host Kwami Sefa Kayi, also gave away over 300 million cedis in the previous year.

He was, therefore, alarmed by the rate of corruption in the Mahama-led government and wondered why government would decide to impose new taxes on goods and services, after failing to account for its losses.

In his view, the monies could have been put to good use by constructing highways similar to the George Walker Bush N1 Highway across the country and partly used to develop deprived areas in the economy.

“The Ministry of Environment bloated their budget and squandered 60 million cedis. It’s not even for the whole year, they have misused their budget from January to September…The Youth and Sports wasted $ 300 million which when translated into dollars is 150 million dollars; just that alone can construct one N 1 Highway.”

Assessing the impact of government’s actions, he said the country “today demands water from Cote d’Ivoire. Our oil companies demand water from Cote d’Ivoire. Breweries also call on Cote d’Ivoire to supply them with water,” due to government’s inability to remit its costs.