We did not mismanage Covid-19 funds – Pres. Akufo-Addo

The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, has rejected claims suggesting that there was mismanagement of resources and funds meant to support Ghana’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, the accusations are baseless, as the government did what was needed to prevent the spread of the virus and cushion citizens.

Speaking during the 2023 State of the Nations Address in Parliament on Wednesday, the president said, “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 23 and 25, 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 would justify this conclusion.”

The president’s statement is however contrary to what was released in the 2022 Auditor-General’s report released in January this year. The report indicates that the country lost about GHS1 billion through various loopholes, including the unapproved and illegal payment of allowances.

“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.” In dealing with the crisis generally, I did not meet anyone brave enough to suggest that considerations of money should be a hindrance to anything we needed to do in the fight against the virus,” the President added.

SOURCE: Emmanuella Annor, Reporter, MX24 TV