Finance Ministry advisor alleges $65 million GARID funds diverted for COVID-19 expenses
via GhanaWeb2 min read
Frederick Amissah, a Technical Advisor at the Ministry of Finance, claims that the Akufo-Addo administration redirected nearly half of the funds drawn from the World Bank-funded Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development GARID Project to finance COVID-19-related expenditures. The GARID Project, valued at $350 million, had $137 million disbursed, with Amissah stating that approximately $65 million was diverted for pandemic activities. He further noted that while $60.8 million of the transferred funds have been accounted for, about $4.2 million remains unretired. Amissah questioned the necessity of this diversion, suggesting that the government had alternative financing options for pandemic response, such as the Stabilisation Fund, International Monetary Fund support, and African Development Bank facilities. He also detailed some expenditures, including $2.8 million for fumigation, $60.8 million distributed to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, and over $1 million for quarantine feeding. Amissah also raised concerns about an additional $3 million expenditure for "support for COVID-19 activities" whose purpose he described as unclear.
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This summary was AI-generated from a story originally published by GhanaWeb.
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