President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo stated that Ghana’s Covid-19 funds were not misappropriated as suggested by a section of Ghanaians.
According to him, nothing dishonourable was done with the COVID funds.
The presidents’ clarification comes on the back of a report on special audit into Ghana’s Covid-19 funds by the Auditor General where it noted that of a total amount of GHS21.8 billion that accrued to the Government of Ghana as Covid funds, only GHS11, 750,683,059.11 was spent on COVID-19 activities.
According to the Finance Ministry, the remaining GHS10, 093,506,126.13, was spent on budget support.
However, delivering the State of the Nations Address (SoNA) before Parliament on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, President Akufo-Addo said the covid funds were not misused.
“Mr Speaker, it is precisely because the economic fallout from the pandemic is so widespread and long lasting that it is important to show clearly that the COVID funds were not misused. It is critical that we do not lose the confidence of the people that a crisis that they were led to believe we were all in together was abused for personal gain.”
He discloses further that it was Government that asked for the COVID funds to be audited, reiterating that “nothing dishonourable was done with the COVID funds.”
Giving more highlights, President Akufo-Addo gave detailed accounts on how the funds were disbursed.
“Mr Speaker, the government took a deliberate decision to try and keep the inevitable disruptions across all our lives down to a minimum in the education sector, by opening schools and education institutions as soon as it was made safe to do so.
“It was an expensive undertaking and not universally popular. But faced with the prospect of a whole generation of our children losing irreplaceable years of education, and the real likelihood of many of them dropping out of school forever, we took the brave decision to open the institutions. Even then, it is worth pointing out that the school year has not fully returned to the predictable pre-covid calendar.
“After the event, some might be tempted to forget the volumes of sanitizer and other logistics it took to keep the schools open and safe, in much the same way as some might now choose to forget the vitriol that came from some who should have known better, threatening hell and damnation when, according to them, the children start dying in the schools,” the president accounted.
He added “mercifully, we did not lose a single child to COVID in school. I would like to suggest that, with the best will in the world, Mr Speaker, no auditor can put a figure on the cost of keeping the children in school safely during that crisis, nor the continuing cost of the effect of the pandemic on our young people, not the financial cost, not the emotional cost, and certainly not the social cost. But we must thank the Almighty that we have survived to repair the damage and begin to rebuild our economy.”
