The World Bank’s Country Director, Mr Pierre Frank Laporte has indicated the Bank’s satisfaction with the government’s management of COVID-19 support funding since the pandemic struck.

Given the available information, the World Bank considers Ghana to be following due diligence as per the conditions with funds disbursed from the onset of the pandemic. However, the government may be liable to refund these monies, if it comes to the notice of the Bank that they have not served their purposes.

“For those that we have provided, up to now, I have not heard anything that gives me reason to believe that the World Bank’s funds are being misused. But all in itself, there is a process… If ever something is found, it will be repealed.”

“So at this point in time, like I said, nobody has come to me to tell me some of the funds have been misused… And [in addition] government also audits the funds.”
Pierre Laporte, World Bank Country Director

Ghana’s COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project second additional financing

From the onset of the pandemic, the World Bank has supported Ghana’s COVID-19 fight with an amount of US$235 million as part of its Ghana COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project.

Speaking to the media today, 21st June, 2021 on the Ghana COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project second financing, Mr Laporte noted that the approval of the US$200 million funding on June 10, 2021 will help vaccinate 13 million people across the country.

Consequently, he acknowledged that the initial request by the government for the fund was US$260 million, however, the Bank approved US$200 million.

He underscored that the Bank’s decision of US$200 million financing was due to the fact that, considering the Bank’s portfolio of funds disbursed during the pandemic, funds to Ghana are among the highest.

“In Ghana actually, if you are to look at the share of money into COVID, related to the evolution of COVID, I think Ghana probably will be one of the highest. So, we felt that we have put significant money into COVID, and we have to be careful not to overload our support to COVID.”

Monitoring Govt’s procurement of vaccines

With this amount awaiting final approval from parliament, this will push the World Bank’s total financing of Ghana’s Covid-19 fight to the tune of US$435 million, a long term loan facility.

“We consistently have measures put in place to check the proper use of funds. This is an investment project which means it does not go directly into the government’s budget.”

He further indicated that, this project is directly implemented through a project implementation unit set outside the Ministry of Health. Accordingly, the project implementation unit reports to the Ministry of Health, as it is implementing a health project, while also sending its reports to the World Bank.

He hinted that the constituents of the unit, including the staffing, procurement manuals, fiduciary arrangements, et cetera are cleared by the Bank before the unit is constituted.

“When procurements are done, it is always [going to] end up coming back to the Bank. In the event that we will see that there is misuse of funds, the government will have to repay, and we are hoping we don’t get there.”

Also, the country director indicated that the World Bank holds a bi-annual forum every six months to monitor its projects. And at the end of the project, there will also be a completion report to indicate whether the project implementation is satisfactory, he averred.

The COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project Second Additional Financing is to help strengthen the resilience of Ghana’s health systems to better prepare for the future pandemic. It will also secure the continuation of essential health and nutrition services, including routine childhood immunization.