Minority Raises Red Flags Over Watchman, Entertainment Allowances In Sanitation Ministry Budget

The Minority in parliament is raising red flags over sections of the budget estimates for the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources.

According to Minority Spokesperson on Water Resources, Works and Housing, Sampson Ahi, expenditure items such as GHc 18000 meant for entertainment allowances and a host of other allocations do not depict a ministry that is judiciously using the country's meagre resources.

The Bodi MP made these comments in an interaction with some journalists.

“When I was there, I was never given a clothing and entertainment allowance. Recruitment into the security is about GHC 81,000. Watchman allowance GHC 36,000. Clothing allowance GHC 18,000 and another entertainment allowance GHC 16,000. They are duplicating the expenses.

“We don't need to provide money to the Minister to provide entertainment. I was expecting him to provide answers to it. When I was in office for four years, we never had a budget line called entertainment allowance.”

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Water Resources, Works and Housing, Nana Amoakoh says the Minority is misconstruing the figures.

“When we talk about allocations, no Ministry's allocation is going to be enough. This is something that has come through the budget. It does not mean we are going to spend GHC 246 million. It could go beyond because it is dependent on the type of job they are going to be doing.”

We're yet to receive GH¢200m budgetary allocation – Sanitation Ministry

The Ministry in June expressed concerns over delays in receiving the GH¢200 million allocated to it to address the sanitation challenges in the country.

This was despite an announcement by the government that it has made the funds available to get the ministry to step up efforts in making Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

The Sector Minister, Joseph Kofi Adda said the money was yet to hit his ministry's accounts to enable it to execute the various projects to improve sanitation in the country.

“The government has approved money for us, budget-wise, it has not yet hit our account. We have a financial system that you have to process from expenditure initiation, through to approval process and getting it to go through the GIFMIS system. The money has been released, but it has not yet reached our account besides we have to go through the procurement process to be able to get the contractors to execute the job. We are still going through the process,” he said earlier on Citi TV’s Point of View.

Source: citinewsroom.com| Ghana