Parliament is set to revisit the audit of government’s COVID-19 expenditure after fresh findings raised questions about whether the Auditor-General’s report covered the full spectrum of funds approved and released for various sectors.

South Dayi MP and Majority Chief Whip, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, says Parliament may have to return to the Auditor-General for a forensic audit following the latest investigation by journalist Manasseh Awuni into COVID expenditure.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, Mr Dafeamekpor said the Auditor-General conducted a follow-up report in July 2023 on the implementation of recommendations contained in the earlier audit.

“The Auditor-General actually proceeded further to do what they called a follow-up report on the implementation, and I’ve just forwarded it to your producer,” he said.

He said the latest findings have exposed gaps between expenditure approved by Parliament and what was captured in the audit report.

“If it is emerging today that the report that the Auditor-General actually submitted in January 2023 didn’t cover the full spectrum of the expenditure that was approved by Parliament, and Manasseh did a good job by disaggregating the thematic areas of the expenditure,” he said.

Mr Dafeamekpor cited several discrepancies highlighted by the investigation.

“For the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Finance came to Parliament to ask for 299 million for their expenditure for the period, and the audit reported zero, so that narrows the issues for us,” he said.

He said similar questions arise from expenditure at the local government level.

“Under local government, it took nearly 160 million as approved for you by Parliament and actually released to you for your work within the period. The auditors reported zero,” he said.

Education, he added, also raises concerns.

“He said, Education: Parliament approved, and you actually received 316.1 million, but the auditors actually reported only 96.3 million. So, what are we looking at?” he asked.

Mr Dafeamekpor said Parliament would now have to consider whether the scope of the audit commissioned by the Ministry of Finance was adequate.

He said the Office of the Auditor-General was commissioned on July 14, 2022, to undertake a special audit, but that the audit was limited to the education sector.

“That is the way Parliament will see it with what is emerging,” he said.

According to him, Parliament may therefore return to the Auditor-General with a broader mandate.

“We have our mandate carved out for us to now go back to the Auditor-General and say that you must now conduct a forensic audit because this journalist is saying that even your audit in respect of the Ministry of Education, you didn’t audit the full spectrum of the expenditures that were approved,” he said.

“Parliament has been bludgeoned from behind. So, so we have to go back for a proper audit of what we call a forensic audit, not no longer a special audit,” he added.

However, Mr Dafeamekpor stopped short of concluding that Parliament was deliberately misled.

“No. You see, Parliament would have been misled if the Auditor-General said that I had conducted an audit of the Ministry of Transport or the Ministry of Local Government and found that they expended X amount of money but actually reported Y amount of money. But in reporting to Parliament, then you suppress the figures,” he said.