Government Blows Ghc12.4billion COVID-19 Money —-Reports Says Money cannot be Unaccounted For

A corruption risk assessment report on the government’s application of funds in the fight against the coronavirus disease has concluded that a total of Ghc12.4billion which was so invested, has not been accounted for.

The report which was compiled under the auspices of the Community Development Alliance (CDA) which collaborated with the Commonwealth Foundation, highlighted many corruption risks in the application of funds.

“Some companies were repeatedly rewarded contracts”, said lead researcher, Michael Ohene Effah, who explained that though this is no smoking gun evidence of corruption, it highly potentiated “a risk of corruption”.

It would be recalled that last year, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, reported to the shock of the nation that the government had spent a whopping $9,383,487 on cooked food during the three-week Covid-19 lockdown.

Many Ghanaians had taken the report with a pinch of salt as the lockdown had happened in only Accra and Kumasi with most residents not even receiving any of the food.

According to the corruption risk assessment, most of the contracts awarded by the government in regards to the fight against the virus vandalized procurement procedures.

The report called on the Auditor General’s Office, the Office of the Special Prosecutor and other relevant state investigative institutions to probe the matter.

It also urged the media and Ghanaians in general to demand accountability from government.

Mr. Effah also called on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) “to also use their own systems to check that everything has been used judiciously and have been adequately accounted for”.