Minority accuses government of hiding truth about GH¢600M for Agenda 111 project

The Minority in Parliament believes the government is not being honest about the GH¢600 million expected expenditure on the Agenda 111 hospitals project.

The Minority's position follows the Finance Ministry's claim that the GH¢600 million is yet to be disbursed.

In a statement responding to concerns raised by the Minority in Parliament , the ministry said the amount had been released into the project account at the Bank of Ghana.

But the Minority in a rejoinder to the Ministry’s response said the government’s explanations raise “more concerns about the chain of custody of the GH¢600 million allocated for Agenda 111 projects.”

“Government's communication and explanations lead to a rather unfortunate conclusion that government is hiding the truth about the G¢600 million expenditure and from all the contradictions, it may be that the GH¢600 million is missing,” the Minority added in a statement signed by Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh.

The Minority thus called on the Auditor-General to immediately constitute a team to audit the processes leading to the transfer and expenditure of the GH¢600 million.

“We call on the Auditor-General to immediately constitute an audit team involving the services of a reputable international Audit Firm such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), to immediately audit the processes leading to the supposed transfer and the expenditure of the 600 million between the Ministry of finance, the Controller and Accountant General's Department, the Bank of Ghana, the Ministry of Health and the Office of the Chief of Staff to ascertain the veracity of the claims of the Ministry of Finance.”

The Minority said it will be compelled to start the processes of gathering signatures of Members of Parliament for an investigation into the missing GH¢600 million from the consolidated fund if the Auditor General fails to Act within two weeks. Below is the statement from the Minority

20/08/2021

For Immediate Release

MINORITY STATEMENT ON THE MISSING GH₵600 MILLION FROM THE CONSOLIDATED FUND SINCE 2020.

The Minority in Parliament has read with utmost shock and alarm a press statement issued by the Ministry of Finance in response to its recent call for accountability for an amount of GH₵600million released or utilized in 2020 for the management of AGENDA 111 projects.

Although the statement in itself did not address the entirety of concerns raised in our press statement regarding the sufficiency of allocations, the appropriacy of the implementing agency (Office of the President) and the propriety of procurement methods leading to the award of contracts; we find the explanations on the GH₵600million expenditure rather bizarre to say the least.

The statement is alarming in that it raises even more concerns about the chain of custody of the GH₵600 million allocated for AGENDA 111 projects. We therefore put forward a few questions:

Did government release GH₵600 million for the Agenda 111 in 2020 as per the Ministry of Finance's statement and when did this happen? Why was this not captured in the 2021 Budget?

Which agency of government is implementing Agenda 111 and is that agency different from the agency holding custody of funds for the same project? Why?
Are funds purported to be lodged at the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund meant for investment management or they are lodged there to be made available to the implementing agency on demand?
Assuming that funds have been released for Agenda 111 projects, what has been the chain of custody of the funds since they left the Consolidated Accounts at the BoG?
Can government, without releasing funds from the Bank of Ghana to the implementing agency admit to having released same and present same to parliament and the people of Ghana?

Government's communication and explanations leads to a rather unfortunate conclusion that government is hiding the truth about the GH₵600 million expenditure and from all the contradictions, it may be that the GH₵600 million is Missing.

In view of the above, we call on the Auditor General to immediately constitute an Audit team involving the services of a reputable international Audit Firm such as Price Waterhouse coopers (PWC), to immediately Audit the processes leading to the supposed transfer and the expenditure of the 600 million between the Ministry of finance, the Controller and Accountant General's Department, the Bank of Ghana, the Ministry of Health and the Office of the Chief of Staff to ascertain the veracity of the claims of the Ministry of Finance.

We also wish to serve notice that, if the Auditor General fails to Act within 2 weeks, we will have no option than to start the processes of collecting enough signatures from Members of Parliament to trigger a recall of Parliament so that a committee of Parliament can investigate the Missing GH₵ 600 million from the consolidated fund.

Kwabena Mintah Akandoh (MP)

MP for Juaboso & Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health

---citinews