Government spent nearly 50% of COVID-19 funds on 'budget support' – A-G report

The Government of Ghana spent between March 2020 and June 2022 spent nearly 50 percent of COVID-19 related funds mobilised to combat the pandemic on ‘budget support’.

A recently released Auditor General’s report said the amount spent by government was GH¢10 billion out of the GH¢21,844,189,185.24 mobilised by the State to combat the pandemic.

The report noted that only GH¢11,750,683,059.11 was spent by government to tackle the virus while the remaining amount, according to its records went toward supporting the budget.

“Out of GH¢21,844,189,185.24 mobilised, ¢11,750,683,059.11 was spent on Covid-19 activities and the rest on budget support. On Covid-19 activities, we noted that GH¢8,658,496,124.96 was spent in 2020, GH¢3,084,311,725.45 in 2021, and GH¢7,875,208.70 in 2022 to mitigate the impact of coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in Ghana,” portions of the report read.

Meanwhile, the A-G report also uncovered that the Government of Ghana paid during the period of March 2020 and June 2022 paid an amount of $80 million for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines.

However, the vaccines have since not been delivered to the country.

The special audit report has been prepared under Section 16 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584) for submission to Parliament.

It detailed the various expenditure made by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies during the aforementioned period.



MA/FNOQ