MPs fail to file report on AIDS cash

Only sixteen out of the 185 members of the last Parliament who received funds from the Ghana Aids Commission (GAC) to undertake HIV/AIDS prevention programme in their constituency had filed reports to the Commission.

A deputy finance minister, Anthony Akoto- Osei, disclosed this in a reaction to a plea by Minority Spokesman on Finance, Moses Asaga, who asked the GAC to make available more funds to MPs to act as advocates in HIV/AIDS prevention programmes.

He said this when a motion for the approval of a credit agreement of a 20 million dollar loan between the government and the International Development Association for the Multi sectoral HIV/AIDS Project (M-SHAP) was tabled.

The project was designed among others to help reduce new HIV infection rate among vulnerable groups and the general population.

Dr Osei-Akoto told the MPs that while the GAC appreciated the role they could play as advocates on HIV prevention in their constituencies, there was the need for those who had already received funding from the Commission to file their reports so that the programme could be sustained.