Titus Glover Breaks Rank, Backs Audit of Gov’t Fraudulent COVID-19 Expenditure

Former Member of Parliament for Tema East in the Greater Accra Region, Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus Glover, has called on the Auditor-General (A-G) to audit and publish findings on how much the government spent on the COVID-19 pandemic.

He made the call on Accra-based UTV’s ‘Adekye Nsroma’ programme following earlier calls by Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr. Casiel Ato Forson for an audit.

“They shouldn’t have waited for Ato Forson to request for an audit,” he said.

“Bring out the report for everyone to know; this is very essential information; everybody wants to know how it (COVID-19 fund) was spent. The Auditor-General and his team should hurry with this . . . don’t give room for speculations and people to attack the government, it is needless. Those responsible for the auditing should do it . . .,” he added.

Dr. Ato Forson had made the call after President Akufo-Addo and his appointees had given conflicting figures on exactly how much they spent fighting COVID-19.

The former Deputy Minister of Finance pointed out that in the recent State of the Nation’s Address by the President, he quoted a different number of GHC18 billion, but when the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta had appeared before Parliament he quoted GH₵17.1 billion.

“So, in one breath, the Vice President is quoting 8.1, the finance minister is quoting 17.1, the President is also quoting a different figure. So, we are having three numbers being bundled around. Who is telling the people of Ghana the truth”? Ato Forson quizzed.

The Akufo-Addo government has been running away from accounting for monies they claim to have spent on COVID-19.

After Ghana started recording infections, the government approached Parliament for Ghc1.2billion to fund a response, only for the Minister of Finance to later tell Parliament they had spent over Ghc 8 billion.

Soon, however, the Finance Minister bumped up the figure to Ghc17.1 billion then in the State of the Nation Address, Akufo-Addo claimed the amount spent is Ghc18.1billion.