The Majority Chief Whip, Mr Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, is demanding immediate arrests if allegations emerging from investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni’s latest investigation into COVID-19 expenditure are found to be true.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, the South Dayi MP said the revelations could point to one of the most serious public finance scandals of the Fourth Republic.
“If what Manasseh Azure Awuni is further revealing is what is actually the case, then arguably we have the greatest public finance scandal of maybe the Fourth Republic,” he said .
His comments follow Mr Awuni’s latest investigation into Ghana’s COVID-19 expenditure, which has raised questions over how pandemic funds were accounted for and reported.
The investigation found that the Auditor-General’s special audit reported GH¢96.3 million as COVID-19 fumigation expenditure, while documents from the Ministries of Education, Local Government and Transport indicated spending of at least GH¢780 million on fumigation .
The Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development alone spent GH¢299 million on three phases of market fumigation between April and November 2020, contracted to Zoomlion, according to the investigation .
The Audit Service has confirmed that it audited the Local Government Ministry’s expenditure, including the fumigation costs, but the spending was not reflected in the final report’s fumigation figure .
Alleged Breach of Section 16
Mr Dafeamekpor said the allegations become more serious if evidence shows that the Auditor-General’s office conducted a special audit but failed to report material findings to Parliament.
He cited Section 16 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584), which requires the Auditor-General and his officers to report their findings from a special audit to Parliament .
“You cannot conceal any facts from Parliament,” he said.
“So where the evidence, the pieces of material evidence that he’s pieced together, points irresistibly to the fact that they actually conducted the audit of the Ministry of Local Government and Transport, but in reporting to Parliament, concealed material findings and perhaps recommendations for consideration by Parliament and perhaps leading to legislative reforms from Parliament, they’re in breach of Section 16,” he stated .
Mr Dafeamekpor said such an alleged failure would concern the statutory obligation attached to special audits.
“That’s under special audits,” he added .
Calls for Forensic Audit
The Majority Chief Whip also called for a forensic audit to settle the outstanding questions.
“If an independent inquiry had been done by a media person, and it’s been established that as much as 600 million or more in expenditure had not been audited, then what it means is that we may have to now call for a forensic audit,” he said .
He noted that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had already raised concerns that the COVID-19 audit was hurriedly conducted.
“At the time, when we called for a more comprehensive audit of the COVID-19 accounts, we were told that we were opposition and we were asking for an audit when the audit had already been done,” he said .
Mr Dafeamekpor said a forensic audit would bring closure to the matter.
“We can bring closure to this matter, because the COVID-19 expenditure issues keep coming up, and it’s as if we haven’t done a good job in examining how and holding accountable public officers who, under emergency powers, under emergency circumstances, were given so much public money to expend, and now accountability has become an issue,” he said .
PAC Vice Chair Cautions Against Arrests
However, the Vice Chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, Mr Davis Ansah Opoku, has cautioned against calls for arrests at this stage.
The Mpraeso MP said the immediate priority should be for the Audit Service to explain why expenditure by the Ministries of Local Government and Transport was not captured in the report .
He rejected calls for arrests based solely on the omissions identified so far.
“But this does not call for arrest, like just like what my senior Rockson sought to create that impression. I mean, we do not need to arrest people at this point,” he said .
Mr Ansah Opoku said the GH¢96.3 million figure should not be automatically interpreted as the total COVID-19 fumigation expenditure, explaining that the amount was for a specific Ghana Education Service activity captured in the report .
He said the Auditor-General is not required to report every item audited if no infraction is identified.
“It is not everything that the Auditor-General reports—audits that he reports on. I think that point must be made clear. If there’s no infraction, do not expect the Auditor-General to report on that,” he said .
Former Auditor-General Demands Explanation
Former Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo has also weighed in on the controversy, calling for explanations from the Auditor-General who oversaw the audit.
“I believe we call the Auditor-General then, so that we can throw light on the audit,” he said on Joy FM’s Midday News on Tuesday .
Mr Domelevo noted that discrepancies could arise from withheld information or weaknesses in audit execution. If public officials intentionally withheld information, it would violate Section 33 of the Audit Service Act, he said.
“But if it is not they hid information and the audit which reported or underreported, then that is more serious,” he added .
The special audit was commissioned in 2022 by then Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to examine COVID-19 expenditure by ministries, departments and agencies covering the period from 2020 to June 2022 .
The Audit Service’s confirmation that the Local Government Ministry’s fumigation expenditure was audited but not included in the final report now forms a key part of the investigation .
The PAC is expected to engage the Audit Service beginning Monday, where the Auditor-General’s office will have the opportunity to respond to the discrepancy and clarify how the COVID-19 fumigation expenditure was assessed and reported .
