The government has been able to save an amount of GH 5 billion by reviewing some outstanding claims from previous contracts, Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori Atta has stated.
He said After an audit by the Auditor General on request from the government, only GH 6 billion out of the GHc11 billion outstanding claims were validated.
Presenting the mid year budget to Parliament, Mr Ofori Atta took a swipe at the previous government over what he described as their lack of discretion in making repayment, while commending the current government over their frugality when it comes to spending.
“The previous government had the penchant of awarding contracts by heart even when they had no idea as to how to pay for them. So to protect the public purse, my Ministry initiated and requested the Auditor-General to audit and validate the over GH¢11 billion outstanding claims which had been approved and left by the previous government to be paid”.
Ken Ofori-Atta
In 2018, President Akufo-Addo disclosed that the previous administration left behind for the current government inflated contracts to the tune of 5.7 billion Ghana cedis which was cancelled.
According to the President, quite an appreciable number of contracts awarded under former President John Mahama’s leadership were inflated, resulting in over GHC 8 billion being handed over to his administration.
As a result of the bloat in figures, his administration were ambivalent in awarding any new contract, especially when it doesn’t have a trough of money to finance the project.
“We are resisting the temptation to award contracts when funds are not available to pay for the certificates as they come up”.
“Those who conduct business with the government will find out that things are being done differently. We’ve had to subject eight billion cedis of arrears bequeathed to us at the beginning of 2017 to a process of audit review and validation”.
“The audit service has certified payments to the tune of 5.5 billion cedis and rejected about 5.7 billion cedis, representing a potential savings of 51% of these outstanding commitments.
“This shows the validity of our criticism that so much of contracts awarded in the Mahama era were inflated and are currently in some cases non-existent”.
Prez Akufo Addo
He further iterated the backlog of contractors his government has had to pay to debt incurred under Mahama’s. He stated that there has already been payment of GH¢125 million out of the remainder of GH¢600 million to the contractors.
President Akufo-Addo revealed further that his administration has had to subject 11 billion cedis of arrears, bequeathed his government in 2017 by the Mahama administration, to a process of audit review and validation.
“The audit service has certified payments to the tune of GH¢5.5 billion, and rejected about GH¢5.7 billion cedis, representing a potential savings of 51% on these outstanding commitments. This shows the validity of our criticism that so much of contracts awarded in the Mahama era were inflated”.
The Finance Minister in his delivery of the budget, provided insight into the inquiry undertaken by the Auditor General over the inflation claims. He further indicated that government is currently awaiting the perpetrators of the rejected claims.
“The Auditor-General validated GH¢6 billion of the GH¢11 billion claims. We await the subsequent surcharging of all those complicit in the submission of the disallowed claims from the Auditor General’s Department”.
