Ghana’s Parliament has rejected a motion filed by some members of the minority to investigate into the expenditure by government in relation to COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.
The motion was moved by the ranking member of the finance committee Cassiel Ato Forson and was seconded by the Minority Chief Whip Munthaka Mubarak who are both sponsors of the bill including the Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu.
The the 3 members of the minority filed the motion seeking for a bipartisan probe into the COVID-19 expenditure by the Government in 2020.
Presenting the motion on the floor Hon. Ato Forson stated that , it is important for the supposed committee to be chaired by a member of the minority. He said an amount of 1.2billion Ghana cedis was approved by parliament to support the Coronavirus alleviation program.
Meanwhile during the mid-year budget review the government brought an expenditure of 8billion one hundred and twenty 2 Ghana cedis he said.
Ato Forson stated categorically that, it very obvious that the government went ahead to spend an additional amount of 7billion for COVID-19 purposes without Parliaments approval. He added that the government was supposed to present an expenditure break down of the 1.2billion to the Finance Committee but the Ministry refused but rather went ahead to spend an unapproved amount in addition. He indicated that, these and many more are the reasons why he is seeking for the adoption of the motion.
The member of Parliament for Asawase Constituency seconding the motion also added that, the health ministry per the budget review of 2021 were only able to account for an amount of 600miliion cedis. He said most of the ministry are not able to account for all the monies allocated in their name so it expedient for a committee to have a thorough investigation on how all the monies were spent.
The deputy majority leader Alexander Kwaamena Afenyo Markin objected to the motion and requested that the speaker reject it be because it is baseless.
Making reference with article 187 of the constitution, he indicated that, the Auditor General is the best person to investigate on the matter and not any other committee. Afenyo Markin explained that , after the Auditor General’s investigation the report shall become a property of Parliament and for that matter the public accounts committee can do a thorough probe into it.
The Second Deputy Speaker Hon Joseph Osei Owusu presiding the house therefore rejected the motion on the grounds that , if they want a bipartisan committee which will be chaired by a minority to probe into the matter they should wait till the report gets to the Public Accounts Committee which is also chaired by the minority. The motion was therefore rejected