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Former President John Dramani Mahama has stated that the controversy by Members of Parliament (MPs) will carry out all the problems with the State of the Nation Handle (SONA) that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo simply delivered in Parliament.
Requested whether or not what President Akufo-Addo delivered mirrored the actual state of affairs within the nation, Mr Mahama who was in Parliament on Wednesday March 8 to hearken to the deal with informed TV3’s Komla Klutse that “It’s for the MPs to debate. The president has fulfilled his constitutional obligation, you won’t agree on all of the factors however he has achieved what he’s anticipated to do. The remainder of the controversy is left to the Members of Parliament.”
Requested once more whether or not President Akufo-Addo’s language and diction appealed to the conscience of the individuals, he answered “It’s not for me to evaluate, I believe within the debate it’ll all come out.”
President Akufo-Addo within the deal with stated amongst different issues that the federal government known as for an audit into the spending of Covid funds.
Assuring Parliament that the funds have been utilized correctly, he stated “Mr Speaker, it was authorities that requested for the COVID funds to be audited, and I can guarantee this Home that nothing dishonorable was achieved with the COVID funds.
“The responses from the Ministers for Well being and Finance, on January 23 and 25, 2023, respectively, have sufficiently laid to relaxation the queries from the Auditor Basic’s report, and I consider any goal scrutiny of those statements from the Well being and Finance Ministries would justify this conclusion.”
He additional gave a breakdown of how the funds have been utilized.
“We offered 5 hundred and eighteen million cedis (GH¢518 million) of grants and loans to micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) by means of the NBSSI, now the Ghana Enterprise Company, during which 300 and two thousand, 5 hundred and fifteen (302,515) enterprises benefitted, of which sixty p.c (60%) have been women-owned.
“These have been MSMEs that have been in misery because of the pandemic. For some merchants, the receipt of 1 thousand cedis (GH¢1,000) made the distinction between the wreck of the family and survival.
“As well as, fifty-eight thousand and forty-one (58,041) well being staff have been employed to complement the prevailing well being sector workforce. Subsequently, all of them have been absorbed as everlasting staff within the well being sector. Frontline well being staff have been additionally granted fifty p.c (50%) tax reduction for the interval. Was that one thing to remorse? We ought to be ceaselessly grateful for the work that so many individuals did to maintain all of us secure. All households loved free water provide and large reductions on electrical energy payments, as a result of entry to water was a necessity to make sure individuals adhered to hygiene practices, and entry to electrical energy was essential as all people was inspired to remain at house. It additionally offered an financial cushion to guard lives and livelihoods at a time of problem. At present, the federal government help for utility payments is being projected by some as a waste or to make use of that phrase, so beloved of some commentators, profligate.”
This comes within the wake of a current audit report on Covid spending issued by the Auditor Basic.
The Auditor-Basic report acknowledged that “Throughout our overview, we famous that senior administration workers and different supporting workers of the Ministry of Info paid themselves a complete quantity of GH¢151,500.00 as COVID-19 threat allowance for coming to work throughout the lockdown.”
It additional indicated that the Ministry of Well being (MoH) entered a contract signed on 15 December 2021 for the availability of 26 Toyota Hiace Deluxe Ambulances valued at US$4,049,460.12 out of which US$607,419.02 was paid to vide PV No. IPF 22-007 of two September 2022 is to be delivered by 15 January 2022.
Nonetheless, the report stated, the ambulances remained undelivered as of 28 November 2022.
Supply: 3news.com
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