No budgetary allocation from the central government was made to any of the 260 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) for COVID-19 related activities last year, a research conducted by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has established.
Similarly, no provision has been made for COVID-19 related interventions at the local government this year with MMDAs directed to rely on the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) for such activities, which was irregular.
At a public forum the “Accountability Gaps on COVID-19 Response Measures” in Accra yesterday, it came to light that the move could be accountable for the general apathy and hesitancy on safety protocols, giving room for conspiracy theories at the local level.
It comes on the back of a petition by the Minority Caucus in Parliament for a bipartisan probe into the entire COVID-19 receipts and expenditure of government.
Although the motion had since been dismissed by the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, with the explanation that it was the job of the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee to investigate the matter, the minority had vowed to challenge the decision.
The report, conducted in collaboration with the Economic Governance Platform with funding from the United States Embassy, found that although an estimated GH¢61million was received by all 260 assemblies for COVID-19 related activities in 2020, 70 percent of the funds were from DACF- Responsiveness Factor Grant (RFG).
This means, they were monies provided by development partners for other developmental projects at the local level, but had to be diverted for COVID-19 interventions.
Overall, the report found that but for few districts where COVID-19 funds were used for alternative purposes in 2020, most part of the expenditure were aligned with expected targets.
Areas largely covered public education and sensitization, installation of water systems and hand washing facilities, procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), fumigation of markets and other public places and other health-related logistics.
At the national level, the report identified irregularities with polices like management and care for COVID-19 patients, provision of PPE to health workers, incentive package for frontline health workers and businesses, during the heat of the pandemic.
It nonetheless commended managers of theCOVID-19 National Trust Fund for being quite efficient in the use of funds, disbursing about 79 percent of monies to traceable COVID-19 interventions.
Moving forward, the report recommended that managers were more proactive with accountability to the public.
“There is the critical need to resource MMDAs to continue sensitization and protocol enforcement measures, review our overall enforcement strategy and polices with lessons learn so far,” it recommended.
The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament, James KlutseAvedzi in a remark said, the PAC was yet to receive any audit report of government expenditure on COVID-19.
He challenged the Auditor-General to take up auditing of COVID-19 expenditures as a project per the powers granted him by the Constitution.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
