The Ghc7 billion expenditure has remained undisclosed for years!
Vice president Mahamudu Bawumia has revealed that a Ghc7 billion expenditure which was not accounted for in the country’s fiscal data has been discovered by the new government.
The Vice President first made this disclosure at the Good Corporate Governance Forum held at Kempinski Hotel, Accra, on Tuesday. The event which was organised by Krif Ghana Limited in association with Action Chapel International was themed: ‘Accelerated Growth and Development through Transparency and Integrity’.
He subsequently shared the discovery on his official twitter handle. According to him, the discovery was made while they were assessing financial data in preparation for the 2017 budget which will be presented to the Parliament in March.
Speaking at the event, Bawumia revealed that the Ghc7 billion expenditure was carried out between 2014 and 2016. He stated that financial data for the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 fiscal years handed over to the NPP by the past NDC government are incomplete, making it almost impossible for the new administration to know the exact state of the nation financially. Continuing, the Veep said a lot of Auditor General reports involving billions of cedes have been done. But they are yet to be followed up to ensure that the monies in question are duly refunded to the state.
Dr. Bawumia who has always accused the past NDC administration of corruption lamented the incident, saying it will be very hard for the new government to ensure proper financial management if they lack the correct figures to start off with. He emphasized the need for “integrity of data” which according to him, is unbeatable as far as the management of the economy is concerned.
The Vice President however, assured that even in the midst of the discrepancies, measures that will ensure accountability, transparency and integrity in governance are already being put in place by the government.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has never taken it lightly with the government of the National Democratic government as far as corruption is concerned. Since after picking the ticket for the Vice Presidential post, Bawumia has been making shocking revelations about the mismanagement of public funds by NDC official.
Using experiences from his former position as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Bawumia never spared any opportunity to criticize, scrutinize, unravel and make a nonsense of claims by the past administration which he deemed incredible or false.
Still speaking at the Good Corporate Governance Forum, Dr. Bawumia stressed the importance of strict enforcement of the Public Procurement Act. Making reference to the alleged $13.9 million house for the immediate past Vice president, he said the Procurement Act will see that such abuse of funds is never allowed.
He pointed out that sole-sourcing, which probably is the case with the former veep’s house has become the other of the day, owing to the abuse of Act 663 of the Public Procurement Act. According to him, such abusive practice must be eliminated for the country to be able to achieve accelerated growth and development through transparency and integrity as the theme of the event suggests.
The New Patriotic Party, both before and after taking over leadership have been lamenting that they inherited a very difficult economy from the Mahama-led administration. President Akufo-Addo who recently confirmed the claims said that the economy is even worse than he speculated.
See: What Nana Addo Is Saying and Doing About Ghana Economy
The new government has however, assured Ghanaians that they will endeavour to fulfil all the promises they made even in the midst of the poor economic conditions.
The NPP has also promised to deal with corrupt government officials, and to generally rid the economy of corruption. The party’s leader, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had before and after his election as Ghana’s president, gave out assurances that he will do all within his powers to ensure that public offices do not remain a money-making platform for greedy politicians. He also promised to go after past and present officials who were indicted in corrupt practices via a Special/Independent Prosecutor Office.
To lend credence to the NPP’s accusations of the NDC as being corrupt, former president JJ Rawlings, who is also the NDC founding father, urged President Akufo-Addo to make sure he pursues a thorough anti-corruption drive throughout his stay in office.
Now, the big question is: will government commit itself to finding the people who are associated with this controversial Ghc7 billion expenditure? Please let’s know your take on the breaking issue.
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