The Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has claimed that the Ministry of Works and Housing has not provided a detailed account to Parliament for the $65 million from the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development Project (GARID) used for COVID-19 expenditures.
The Minority has accused the Ministry of failing to provide a detailed breakdown of the expenditure from the $200 million GARID project.
However, in a statement dated Monday, May 20, the Ministry stated that a detailed expenditure breakdown was presented to Parliament, specifying that the $65 million GARID fund was used to support COVID-19 expenditures.
“With $65 million directed to support the COVID-19 related expenditures under the Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC) agreed with the World Bank and included in the Project Appraisal Document, $34.33 million of the amount drawn down was used for GARID activities and the remaining $27.79 million represents the bank balances as of the reporting period. The detailed expenditure breakdown was presented to Parliament.”
“Prior to disbursement, the Ministry of Health, responsible for implementing the CERC, submitted a detailed work plan and budget, which were approved by the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank,” the Ministry said in its statement.
However, in an interview on The Point of View on Citi TV with Bernard Avle, the Minority Leader refuted this, stating, “That is not true, that is not correct. If they had accounted for COVID-19 expenditure to Parliament, you would have heard it. You recall that this same Parliament under Hon. Speaker Alban Bagbin was asked to investigate the COVID-19 expenditure, and to date, that has not been done. So, nothing of the sort has been done.”
He urged the Ministry to present a detailed expenditure of the $65 million funds to Parliament.
“Our argument is that we approved the funds, and we want to know how you used the funds before we can commit additional funds. $65 million is not chicken money, it is big money. If for some reason you have to divert some of the funds, come back to us, give us detailed expenditure returns, and let us be convinced before we can commit additional funds. We don’t have it,” he pointed out.
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