The Caucus for Democratic Governance-Ghana (CDG-Ghana) has accused the Office of the President of wasteful expenditure within the period the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has been in office.

According to the think-tank, within the space of nine months (January – September 2017), the Office of the President spent a total of GHS 76,108,388.94 on goods and services.

The group explained that GHS 68,458,797.94 of this amount was spent at the Office of the Chief of Staff and GHS 3,831,270.00 at the Vice President’s Secretariat.

In an interview with Class FM’s Jerry Akornor, the Chief Convenor of the group, Dr Ebenezer Hayford, said the immediate effect of the wasteful expenditure is that key growth sectors are denied resources to generate economic growth and development.

The former University of Ghana Senior Lecturer wants the presidency to control expenditure in order not to drain public funds.

‘’From all angles it’s a wasteful expenditure, that is why I was trying to find out what kind of purchases of goods and services will amount to GHS 76m for the Office of the President. I am seeking to point out that the president has actually been telling us one thing and doing another thing.

They promised to protect the public purse, President Akufo-Addo is not the first and will certainly not be the last president but those who came earlier let’s say in the fourth republic had a sizeable budget for purchasing goods and services, why is it that in his case the budget is too high? Any sensible person will want to find out, why that sum of money when he could have done it another way?’’ Dr Hayford questioned.

Attached is a press release by CDG-Ghana containing details of the expenditure according to the think-tank.