A-G Report: NDC vindicated on reckless use of COVID funds – Segbefia

Former Minister of Health under the John Mahama administration, Alex Segbefia says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) feels vindicated following the findings of the Auditor General’s Report.

The Auditor General’s special report on Ghana’s COVID 19 expenditure has revealed some huge payment made by the Ministry of Health.

According to the report, the Ministry paid over 10 million cedis in insurance premiums to cover 10,000 frontline health workers and allied health professionals without a life insurance policy document.

Commenting on the findings on GHOne TV January 23, 2023 Monday, Mr. Segbefia stated the NDC is completely justified in raising concerns about how COVID money is spent.

“And we think that once we’ve digested some prospects in this perspective, we will then be also further justified to say a lot of this money was used in a way as to enhance the campaign at the time. And not necessarily simply to deal with the Covid woes that we had at the time. The accounting in many cases is abysmal.

“We believe that we have to give leeway for the exigencies at the time and the difficulties that we were going through and so certain things had to be done quickly, and that we accept. But notwithstanding the fact we think there are a lot of things in that report which don’t sit well or are not palatable. You are looking at an expenditure of GHC 19.1 billion in 2020 alone. The total amount over 2021, 2022 we are looking at GHC21billion. And so, the bulk of that money was spent in 2020”, Mr. Segbefia stated.

He further added that the governing NPP made a lot of expenses that were not necessary for the future of the country.

“And when you look at how it was spent, what it was used for and you drill down which will be done subsequently. I’m sure people will begin to realize that a lot of things were done which leave a lot to be desired. You will notice that some funds were used for 88 hospitals at the time, it’s within the document and we still haven’t seen a single document yet, and that has kicked from 88 to 111.

Source: Starrfm.com.gh