Former Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo has called for an explanation from then Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, over a significant discrepancy in the reported expenditure on COVID-19 fumigation.

His comments follow an investigation by journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni, which found that Ghana may have spent at least GH¢720 million on COVID-19 fumigation, despite the Auditor-General’s special audit recording only GH¢96 million for the exercise.

Mr Domelevo, in an interview on Joy FM’s Middaynews on Tuesday, September 15, said the way to find answers is to involve the Auditor-General under whose tenure the audit was conducted.

“I believe we call the Auditor-General then, so that we can throw light on the audit for us to know why that happened,” he said.

He explained that the discrepancy could have resulted either from information being withheld from the auditors or from weaknesses in the planning and execution of the audit.

According to Mr Domelevo, if public officials deliberately withheld relevant information from the auditors, that would constitute a serious offence under Section 33 of the Audit Service Act, which requires persons and institutions to provide information to auditors.

“But if it is not they hid information and the audit which reported or underreported, then that is more serious,” he added.

Mr Domelevo said he could not determine which of the two situations occurred because he was not involved in the audit.

“I didn’t do the audit,” he noted, calling for the Auditor-General at the time to explain the circumstances surrounding the reported expenditure.

The investigation examined expenditure by the Ministries of Education, Transport and Local Government and found evidence suggesting that the cost of fumigation was substantially higher than the GH¢96 million captured in the special audit.

The special audit, commissioned in 2022, was intended, among other objectives, to ascertain whether financial records fairly presented COVID-19 fund receipts and payments.