Health Ministry used GH¢20m to renovate an apartment it rented for GH¢15 million – A-G

The Auditor-General’s report on the Government of Ghana’s COVID-19 expenditure has disclosed that the Ministry of Health leased a building for 25 years for over GH¢15million.

The report also stated that the ministry used over GH¢20 million to refurbish the building which was to serve as a COVID-19 isolation centre but was never used.

“The Ministry of Health entered into a 25-year Finance Lease Agreement at a total lease value of GH¢15,265,000.00 in 2020 to be used as a holding and isolation centre in Adaklu in the Volta Region.

“The works, we noted, include remodelling the existing buildings to be used as holding, treatment and isolation centres but could not use the facility for the intended purpose which resulted in an additional cost of GH¢20,382,247.70,” parts of the report read.

The A-G indicated that because of the huge amount of money spent on the building, it impressed the ministry to buy it.

“We recommended to the Chief Director to consider outright acquisition of the building,” it said.

The audit report also showed that nearly 50 percent of the money the state mobilised to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country was used for budget support and not issues related to the outbreak.

The report, which was prepared by the Auditor-General department, indicated that the government raised nearly GH¢22 billion, as of June 2022, to fight COVID-19 in Ghana through the Contingency Fund, the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Union (EU).

However, out of the total amount raised to fight COVID-19 only about GH¢12 billion (a little over 50 per cent of the total funds raised) was used for activities geared toward fighting the spread of the virus and its impact in Ghana.

TWI NEWS

IB/KPE