The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has refuted claims that the Coronavirus funds that his government obtained during the pandemic were misappropriated.
According to an Auditor-General’s report released this year, over $80 million worth of vaccines were paid for by government but has not yet been delivered.
The Auditor-General further revealed that the government paid over $120 million to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) for vaccines but only $38 million worth was delivered.“We noted that the Ministry of Health on behalf of the government of Ghana paid an amount of $120,192,379.80 to UNICEF/AVAT for the supply of vaccines.“However, 5,109,600.00 doses of vaccines valued at $38,322,000.00 were supplied to the National Cold Room leaving a difference of US$81,870,379.00 with UNICEF/AVAT.
”“We recommend that the Chief Director of the Ministry of Health should renegotiate with UNICEF/AVAT to recover the outstanding amount,” the report said.
Delivering the 2023 State of the Nation Address in Parliament today, President Nana Addo stated emphatically that nothing dishonorable was done with the COVID-19 funds by his government.
He told the House that the funds were used for its intended purposes, stating “it is important to show clearly that the COVID-19 funds [COVID funds] were not misused”.He added; “It is critical that we do not lose the confidence of the people that the crisis they were led to believe we were all in together was abused for personal gains.””
Mr. Speaker, it was government that asked for the COVID funds to be audited and I can assure this House that nothing dishonorable was done with the COVID funds.
The responses from the Ministers for Health and Finance on January 23rd and 25th, 2023 respectively have sufficiently laid to rest the queries from the Auditor-General’s report and I believe any objective scrutiny of these statements from the Health and Finance Ministries will justify this conclusion”, the President stressed.
Source: Peace fm