Majority Chief Whip in Parliament, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, is calling for a forensic audit of Ghana’s COVID-19 expenditure following evidence suggesting that more than GH¢600 million in fumigation spending may have been left out of the Auditor-General’s special audit.

He said the alleged gap raises fresh questions about the completeness of the COVID-19 expenditure review and requires the government to reopen the matter.

“If an independent inquiry had been done by a media person, and it’s been established that as much as 600 million or more in expenditure had not been audited, then what it means is that we may have to now call for a forensic audit,” he said on Joy FM’s Top Story on Tuesday, September 15.

According to Mr Dafeamekpor, the COVID-19 audit was already considered inadequate by members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), who had raised concerns that it was hurriedly conducted.

“If you recall, like David said, when these matters came up for our scrutiny, we discovered that one, the audit was hurriedly done, and two, because it was hurriedly done, some expenditure lines were not even covered under the audit,” he said.

He added,“at the time, when we called for a more comprehensive audit of the COVID-19 accounts, we were told that we were opposition and we were asking for an audit when the audit had already been done."

Mr Dafeamekpor said a forensic audit would go beyond the work covered by the special audit and examine both expenditure lines that were inadequately reviewed and those that were not audited at all.

He said such an exercise was necessary to bring closure to continuing questions over the use of public funds during the COVID-19 emergency.

“We can bring closure to this matter, because the COVID-19 expenditure issues keep coming up, and it’s as if we haven’t done a good job in examining how and holding accountable public officers who, under emergency powers, under emergency circumstances, were given so much public money to expend, and now accountability has become an issue,” he said.

Mr Dafeamekpor, who previously served on the PAC, said he would support a forensic audit to settle the outstanding questions.

“So where I sit, I will have to ask for a forensic audit to be done, and it will be good that that is done so that everybody’s mind will be put to rest on the matter,” he said.