Ketu North MP calls on Auditor-General to audit gov’t Covid expenditure as a separate project

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu North in the Volta Region, Hon. James Klutse Avedzi has called on the Auditor-General to use resources at his office to conduct a separate audit into the Covid-19 expenditure of the government.

Since March 2020 when Ghana recorded its first case of the Coronavirus, government has spent billions on various interventions in a bid to fight the global pandemic to protect the citizenry.

In 2020 Parliament approved some GHS11.1 billion after a request by the Finance Minister when the Covid-19 hit the country.

The following year 2021, an additional GHS4.56 billion was approved by Parliament to help fight the pandemic.

Government also received $1 billion in support from the IMF plus some $430 million from the World Bank.

These and monies received by the government from international entities have been spent but are yet to be extensively audited.

Speaking at a Public Forum organised by the Economic Governance Platform (EGP) and Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, in Accra, Hon. James Klutse Avedzi stressed that it is about time government accounted for all Covid expenditure.

The politician charged the Auditor-General to conduct a project and focus resources on auditing the government’s Covid-19 expenditure from March 2020 to date.

“Up to date, we don’t have an audit on the Covid-19 expenditure. In the 2020 auditor general report which was published in June 2021, we did not have expenditure on Covid-19. So we are expecting the auditor general to constitute Covid-19 expenditure as a project,” Hon. James Klutse Avedzi said at the Forum on the theme, "The Accountability Gap in the Covid Responses of Ghana”.

The Ketu North MP continued, “It should not be under the normal annual budget audit. If it is audited as a project then we will then know that all the receivables and approved expenditure, what were those expenses used for?”

James Klutse believes that in the interest of accountability, a specific audit focused on the government’s Covid-19 expenditure is needed.