The Finance Minister, Kenneth Ofori Atta has argued that the John Mahama led government was ignorant of the adverse impact their decision to awarded ‘unjustified’ contracts, had on the Ghanaian economy. In his presentation of the 2020 Mid-Year budget in parliament, the Finance Minister indicated the recklessness of their predecessor, plunged the country into an IMF bailout, and that he added, “the country has exited under Nana Akufo Addo”.
Mr. Ofori Atta disclosed that claim payments on contracts worth GHC11 billion have had to be audited and validated by the Auditor General when they took office in 2017. He mentioned that only GHC6 billion of these contract claims have been approved, and the remainder being disallowed by the Auditor General.
“The previous government had a penchant for awarding contracts by-hearts even when they had no idea of how to pay for them. So to protect the public purse, my Ministry initiated and requested the Auditor General to audit and validate over 11 billion cedis of outstanding claims which have been approved and left by the previous government to be paid. The Auditor General validated 6 billion of the 11 billion claims, we await subsequent surcharging all those complacent in the submission of these disallowed claims from the Auditor General’s Department.”