Information minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has described the Minority in Parliament’s call on the Auditor General to audit the GHC280.3million government spent on food and other relief packages under the Coronavirus Alleviation Program as premature.
The minority in a press conference called on the Auditor General to look into how government spent that money as they suspect government may have misued it for their political gains.
Minority Spokesperson on Finance Casiel Ato Forson said, “the low coverage and haphazard implementation of these interventions during the lockdown period, specifically the distribution of free hot meals and dry food to the vulnerable, as well as the supply of tankers of water to deprived households, give us cause for concern that these funds were not judiciously utilised by the government.
He added that a special audit into government’s expenditure under the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme was imperative given some media reports that suggests state-sponsored COVID relief items meant for the vulnerable, are being sold in the market by functionaries of the ruling New Patriotic Party in Kumasi and other parts of the country.
However, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah in addressing the press on Thursday morningsaid that the minority is only involving in distraction tactics as it’s premature to call for a probe into Covid-19 expenditures because the fight against the pandemic is still ongoing.
“The Covid-19 intervention is ongoing, you are all here because the Covid-19 is ongoing…within that context we can all understand how premature that petition is…as we have always said it is becoming clear that our colleagues in the minority are always looking for some controversy to distract us from this Covid-19 but we will not be distracted,” he stressed.
Source: GhanaFeed.com
