The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has disclosed that the government of Ghana has mobilized in excess of eighteen billion Ghana cedis in its fight against COVID-19.
He said the amount is made up of all the programmes and policies the government has engaged in since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament, the Minister gave a breakdown of the mobilization and the spending of the money.
“Mr. Speaker, at this juncture, I wish to dispel the notion that there have been inconsistencies in government data on COVID-19. His Excellency the President intimated during that State of the Nation Address on 30th March, 2022, that we had mobilized about Gh¢17.7 billion since 2020 to fight the pandemic.”
“We have subsequently reconciled the data and I can report that as of end-May, 2022, we have mobilized Gh¢18.19 billion to mitigate the effect of the pandemic. Again, when His Excellency the Vice President indicated on 7th April, 2022 at the National TESCON Conference that Government had spent Gh¢8.1 billion on Covid-19, it was within the context of expenditures for 2020 as I have already indicated,” the Minister said.
This the Minister explained that out of the Gh¢18.19 billion expended to mitigate the effect of the pandemic, GH¢1,550 million was disbursed under the Support to Households Programme, GH¢1,049 million was allocated to health response-supplies equipment and relief for health workers, GH¢600 million was released to begin the construction across the country and a further GH¢763.92 million has been released to continue the construction of the 111 district hospitals.
He said government also programmed a total amount of GH¢875 million for security operations, evacuation of Ghanaians stranded abroad and coordination of MMDAs’ sanitation and disinfection exercises.
The Minister is in Parliament to account for the COVID-19 funds and also answer urgent questions from Parliamentarians.
Ken Ofori-Atta had come under a lot of criticism from some members from the Minority side and the Speaker of Parliament for treating the house with disdain.
His absence from Parliament last Thursday caused the Speaker to place a moratorium on business from the ministry until all outstanding obligations to Parliament are fulfilled.
A 75 million Euro facility for a COVID-19 response programme was suspended pending the delivery of the account statement to the House by the Finance Minister.
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