Government yet to account for US$430 million World Bank COVID-19 funds – Akandoh

Kwabena Mintah Akandoh says govt is yet to account for the COVID-19 funds

He indicated that funds govt received does not match that in the 2022 budget

He is calling for a strict

Read full articleaccountability on how all the monies received were put to use

Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, a Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, has disclosed that there is a discrepancy between the amount Ghana received from the World Bank at the peak of the novel COVID-19 pandemic and what the government has actually accounted for.

Speaking to the issue on Tuesday, February 8, the Juaboso MP said, the financial support received by the government in the fight against the COVID-19 does not match the expenses captured in the 2022 budget.

He stated, even though 130 million dollars has been accounted for in the budget, there’s an outstanding 430 million dollars left to be accounted for.

Akandoh explained, “We on the Minority side have filed a private member's motion to constitute a bipartisan probe into the entire receipt and expenditure of COVID-19. We think it has never been transparent. There’s one thing indicating what you have received and properly accounting for what you have received, and we think that there hasn’t been proper accountability with regards to COVID-19.”

“There are a lot of issues and the remarks by the Country Director is just one out of the many. We have received not less than 560 million US dollars. We have combed through the 2021 Budget and the 2022 Budget. If what the Director said is anything to go by, then we have a serious problem at hand. Because the money received so far, doesn’t tally with what has been indicated by the Country Director. So, we think that there should be a bipartisan probe to investigate the entire expenditure so that we bring this issue to its logical conclusion,” he added.

Kwabena Mintah Akandoh further indicated that, “we have heard issues about spending about 32 million Ghana Cedis on meetings. We have seen issues about spending 600 million Ghana cedis on Agenda 111 in 2020 before even the grounds were broken for the constructions of Agenda 111. So, these are serious issues that I think we must look into. As if that was not enough, he further indicated that, that amount of money was given to Ghana to sensitize the people of Ghana on COVID-19; to educate the people of Ghana on COVID-19.

"Your guess is as good as mine. Some of you had to give free slots to sensitize the people of this country, without taking a dime from the Ghana government. So, what did they use the money for? This is just a tip of the iceberg. So, I think that, as far as Covid-19 receipt and expenditure are concerned, there’s more to it than we are hearing,” he stressed.

Pierre Frank Laporte, Country Director of the World Bank, had earlier disclosed to JoyNews that, his outfit provided the government of Ghana with $430 million to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

He expressed on ‘PM Express’ that, the money was initially directed at the various campaigns that sought to inform and educate Ghanaians on the COVID-19 and its safety protocols.

“We’ve provided US$430 million to Ghana to fight Covid. And this includes different activities including initially the communication campaign, the sensitization campaign, equipping labs, equipping new facilities to receive patients, to treat patients,” he stated.

Frank Laporte added, the World Bank further provided an additional $130million purposely for the purchase of vaccines.

While the World Bank was actively supporting Ghana’s COVID-19 fight, Laporte stressed, the World Bank also set into motion several projects to enable the country’s economy to stay afloat.