Technical Advisor at the Ministry of Finance, Frederick Amissah, has rejected claims that government delayed the release of funds under the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) Project.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Monday, July 6, he insisted that funds had been released as expected and argued that the real issue was how portions of the World Bank facility had been used in the past.

“There hasn’t been any delays in the release of funds, and I just don’t know where that is coming from,” he said.

Mr Amissah stressed that GARID is one of several World Bank-funded projects in Ghana’s loan portfolio and reminded Ghanaians that the facility is a loan that must be repaid.

“These are loans we have contracted as a state. We shouldn’t miss that point. These are loans we are required to pay back, so if they are loans, then we should look at the usage of the loans,” he said.

He claimed the Mahama administration found worrying spending patterns when it assumed office in 2025.

According to him, the Ghana Economic Transformation (GET) Project recorded nearly GH¢1 billion in travel expenditure in 2024.

“In one year alone, a billion Ghana cedis was used to travel for a World Bank project,” he said, adding that the spending was difficult to justify.

Mr Amissah said President John Mahama’s flood committee, established in March 2025, directed that resources from the GARID facility be used to support flood interventions.

He noted that the project is worth $350 million, with $137 million drawn down so far.

According to him, nearly half of that amount was redirected to Covid-19 expenditure.

“Even the $65 million that was transferred for the purpose of COVID, only $60.8 million has been successfully retired. About $4.2 million remains unretired,” he stated.

Asked whether the Covid-19 emergency justified the diversion of the funds, Mr Amissah answered, “There was no justification for that.”

He argued that Ghana already had other sources of financing available to respond to the pandemic, including the Stabilisation Fund, IMF Rapid Credit Facility support, and financing from the African Development Bank.

“So COVID was actually one of the reasons we had the debt crisis, because it was almost as a ruse to claim more resources, and these resources were not grants,” he said.

Pressed on how the $65 million was spent, Mr Amissah said about $2.8 million went into fumigation, while more than $1 million was used for quarantine feeding.

He also claimed that $60.8 million was shared among Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.

“What actually perplexes me is that there was something that was described as support, support for Covid-19 activities of $3 million, and we don’t know what that is,” he said.

Mr Amissah questioned the effectiveness of the fumigation exercise and argued that the spending pattern warranted closer scrutiny.

“The way the monies were spent, any finance minister or any president will not sit for such criminality to be perpetrated on the state, because remember, the economic crisis we had was as a result of the debt crisis,” he said.