According to the Auditor-General’s Report on the COVID-19 expenditures made by the Ghanaian government, the Ministry of Health rented a building for 25 years at a cost of more than GH15 million.
According to the report, the ministry spent more than GH20 million renovating a structure that was intended to be a COVID-19 isolation centre but was never used.
“The Ministry of Health entered into a 25-year finance lease agreement at a total lease value of GH15,265,000 in 2020 to be used as a holding and isolation centre in Adaklu in the Volta Region.
“The works, we noted, include remodelling the existing buildings to be used as holding, treatment, and isolation centres, but we could not use the facility for the intended purpose, which resulted in an additional cost of GH20,382,247.70,” parts of the report read.
The A-G indicated that because of the huge amount of money spent on the building, it impressed the ministry enough to buy it.
“We recommended to the Chief Director that he consider the outright acquisition of the building,” it said.
The audit study also revealed that the government used more than half of the funds raised to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country for budget support rather than problems related to the outbreak.
The report, which was created by the Auditor-General department, revealed that as of June 2022, the government had secured funding from the Contingency Fund, the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the European Union to fight COVID-19 in Ghana (EU).
However, only roughly GH12 billion (a little over 50% of the total monies raised) of the entire sum raised to fight COVID-19 were used for actions oriented toward preventing the virus’s transmission and its effects in Ghana.
