South Dayi MP and Majority Chief Whip, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has flagged gaps in the Auditor-General’s audit of COVID-19 expenditure approved by Parliament.

His comments follow the latest investigations by journalist Manasseh Awuni, which disaggregated COVID expenditure across various thematic areas and raised questions about the scope of the audit presented to Parliament.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, Mr Dafeamekpor said the Auditor-General had conducted a follow-up report 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 suggest that the audit submitted to Parliament in January 2023 did not cover the full spectrum of expenditure approved by the House.

According to him, Parliament approved GH¢299 million for the Ministry of Transport, but the audit reported zero expenditure.

“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.

Mr Dafeamekpor also pointed to discrepancies in the education sector.

He said Parliament approved and released GH¢316.1 million for education, but the auditors reported only GH¢96.3 million.

“So, what are we looking at?” he asked.

He said the Auditor-General’s special audit had been commissioned by the Ministry of Finance on July 14, 2022, but was limited to the education sector.

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

Mr Dafeamekpor said Parliament would therefore have to return to the Auditor-General for a broader examination of the expenditure.

“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 the matter now required a forensic audit rather than another special audit.

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

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

“Parliament would have been misled if the Auditor-General says that I have conducted an audit of the Ministry of Transport or the Ministry of Local Government and found that they expended X amount of money, and that they actually reported Y amount of money. But in reporting to Parliament, then you suppress the figures.”