Osafo Maafo lied at the People's Assembly- Adjaho

The Minority Chief Whip, Mr Doe Adjaho, has reiterated that Finance Minister, Osafo Maafo actually misapplied funds, approved for the Ministry last year. For instance, the Minister on his own, decided to divert funds, approved for projects, for other purposes, which he personally considered useful, without seeking parliamentary approval for such changes.

Mr Adjaho, who is also the MP for Avenor, therefore, accused the Minister of misinformation, when he dodged the issue at stake and merely claimed credit for performing within the overall budget limits, when he appeared at the “People’s Assembly” in Accra.

He lied to the people of Ghana, Mr Adjaho reaffirmed. Citing instances, Mr Adjaho said instead of 1.2 billion cedis approved for contingency in the first of the two “interim budgets”, the Minister went ahead to spend 122billion cedis, under the schedule, an excess of about 121 billion cedis.

In the case of Administration expenses, the Minister again spent 733 billion cedis, instead of the 469 billion originally approved by parliament. He said the minority detected the flaws, when the Minister presented his record “interim budget”, in which figures were thrown around, the way the Minister willed it and not what have been approved for use.

For instance, specific votes allocated for water, roads, health, education and other essential services were diverted and used under what was described as “Special Contingency. This is a case of clear breach of the constitution and the Appropriation Act”, which regulates the financial administration of the country.

Mr Adjaho said he had never said anywhere that the Minister has exceeded the overall budget limits. His references were made about the way the country’s funds were handled, under the Administration and Contingency categories.

Mr Adjaho referred to Articles and clauses in the constitution, which allows a Minister to always go back to Parliament, to seek approval for supplementary estimates, whenever monies voted for specific purposes are found to be insufficient due to unforeseeable developments.

He said although there are cases, in which technically the use of via, could be restored to, that is when under the Development Sector, money voted for road can be diverted for water, one cannot use the same money for travelling purposes. “Otherwise, the term misapplication of public fund cannot exist”, he emphasised. If we allow this practice to stand, then you cannot hold anyone responsible for misapplication of funds”, he said.