The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has chastised the Akufo-Addo government for mismanaging Covid-19 funds.
The NDC says it is a disgrace for the government to “steal and misuse” the funds meant to be used to fight the pandemic.
The National Communications Officer of the party, Sammy Gyamfi levelled the accusations at a press conference held at the party head office in Accra on Wednesday.
Even though, Mr Gyamfi said the mismanagement of the Covid-19 funds is not surprising to the NDC, the party is however disappointed in the government.
“This reckless misuse of covid-19 funds by the Akuffo Addo/Bawumia government does not come to us as a surprise because we know 30 per cent of the booty went into an insurance company called Enterprise Insurance, the company closely related to the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.”
“It is a known fact within insurance circles that Enterprise Insurance on whose board the wife of the Finance Minister, Angela Ofori-Atta currently sits,” Mr Gyamfi said a press conference dubbed ‘Moment of Truth on Wednesday, February 1.
The NDC’s Communications Officer also alleged that the government paid ¢10.3 million as life insurance to cover 10,000 frontline health workers without a list of beneficiaries.
“The fact the Auditor- General’s report reveal how the Ministry of Health recklessly paid an amount of GHȼ10.3 million as premium for special life insurance cover for 10,000 health workers without any life insurance policy document and a beneficiary list.”
“We find it intriguing and should I say, disgusting how such a huge life Insurance premium was arrived at without a beneficiary list detailing the names of beneficiaries, their dates of birth other relevant information which should have formed the very basis for the computation of that premium,” he lamented.
The Auditor-General last week released a report on the Covid-19 expenditure which revealed some infractions in the government’s expenditure for Covid-19 from March 2020 to June 2022.
Some of the infractions that were uncovered include; paying a total of US$607,419.02 out of US$4,049,460.12 for the purchase of 26 ambulances that were never delivered, paying unapproved GH₵151,500 by the Information Ministry to its own staff as Covid insurance, and paying for $80 million worth of vaccines by the government that was never delivered, amongst others.
Following, these revelations, many Ghanaians have called on the Auditor-General to use its powers of disallowance and surcharge to retrieve the monies to the state.
Source: Ernest Arhinful
