Covid-19 Expenditure: Alban Bagbin Directs Finance And Health Committees Of Parliament To Probe Spending

• The Speaker of Parliament has directed the finance and health committees of Parliament to investigate Covid-19 spending by government agencies
• The two committees will also probe how much funds the government received to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and how much was spent
• Alban Bagbin gave the directive on Wednesday after opposition MPs said Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta gave an unsatisfactory account of the Covid-19 expenditure

Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has directed the finance and health committees of the house to investigate the Covid-19 expenditure of the government.

The Finance Committee and Health Committee of Parliament will look into funds received by the government to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 and how much was spent.

The committees will submit their report to Parliament in the first week of the next meeting of the house in October this year.

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According to a Daily Graphic report, Mr Bagbin gave the directive on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday when the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, appeared before MPs to give an account of how Covid-19 funds had been expended.

The Speaker's decision follows a call by the Minority for an ad-hoc committee to probe the utilisation of COVID-19 funds by the government.

Opposition MP for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, lauded the Speaker for ordering a probe into the Covid-19 spending.

"Speaker Bagbin deserves massive commendations for this," he tweeted.

Bagbin justifies decision for committees to probe spending

Following the Minority's calls for an ad-hoc committee to be set up by Parliament to investigate the matter, Mr Bagbin said there were already committees of Parliament with the capacity to do so.

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He said it would not be necessary to set up a special committee for that purpose.

"Some work has been done, but that does not justify that we should not perform our functions of ensuring that the money was utilised efficiently, effectively and economically," he said.

Mr Bagbin said it was in the interest of the finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Ministry, and the government to constantly inform the people about the taxes and revenue generated on their behalf.

NDC MPs accuse Akufo-Addo and Ofori-Atta of giving conflicting accounts

YEN.com.gh reported in previous story that the opposition NDC MPs accused the president and the finance minister of providing conflicting accounts of how Covid-19 funds were spent.

They say both Nana Akufo-Addo and Ken Ofori-Atta have given different figures of how funds were used to mitigate the impact of the pandemic that hit the country in 2020.

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On Wednesday, the finance minister presented a statement on Covid-19 spending to MPs after rescheduling many times. Ken Ofori-Atta told Parliament that a little over GH¢19 billion was received to fight the pandemic. He said GH¢12 billion had been used so far.

Source: YEN.com.gh