The joint Committee of Finance and Health have been charged to investigate and report back to Parliament within the next four months, its findings concerning the mobilization and utilization of the COVID-19 funds for the years 2020 to 2021, including the COVID-19 Trust Fund.
The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Bagbin, gave the directive in Parliament on Wednesday, June 22, 2022 after the presentation of a statement by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta concerning the COVID-19 expenditures.
“I direct that the Committee of Finance, ably supported by the Committee of Health, should investigate and enquire into the total receipts referred to as COVID-19 funds and how those funds were applied for the betterment of the people of this country,” the Speaker said.
The referral of the matter to the joint Committee for investigation was at the instance of the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) members who called on the Speaker to set up an ad hoc Committee of Parliament to probe the issue because.
According to them, there were inconsistencies in the figures presented to the House by the Finance Minister about the amount mobilized in the name of COVID-19 and how much was spent.
The Finance Minister told Parliament that, the Government mobilized GHc19.3 billion from various funding sources to support the budget both directly and indirectly. Out that amount, an amount of GHc11.16 billion was spent on COVID-19 related expenses. The difference of GHc8.14 billion was programmed to provide for shortfalls in revenue.
However, the Minority Group led by its Leader, Haruna Iddrissu and Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, Cassiel Ato Forson, contended that the information provided by the Finance Minister was inadequate and therefore the need to probe into the issue.
Though the Speaker acknowledged that the Government did some good work to save the lives of many Ghanaians during the pandemic, he was also convinced by the argument of the Minority. He did not only give the directive for a probe into the matter, but also justified the need for Parliament to forcefully play its oversight role to serve the public interest.
“Some work has been done but that doesn’t justify that we should not perform our functions of ensuring that the money was utilized efficiently, effectively, and economically. It is very important for us to do that to allay the fears of Ghanaians, and this matter is of serious public concern. With this, I want to add that the Committee should expedite action on this matter,” the Speaker said.
Source: Clement Akoloh||parliamentnews360.com
