A Research Fellow at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Dr Kwame Asiedu Sarpong, is accusing government of siphoning funds in the guise of Covid-19.

According to the pharmacist, the huge sums of money government received in donations should have been enough to forestall the debt problem the country is currently facing.

A total amount of GH¢21.8 billion was mobilised to mitigate the impact of the pandemic in Ghana.

However, government is currently at the doors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $3 billion bailout.

While government conducts a controversial Domestic Debt Exchange programme, the Auditor-General has released its report on Covid-19 expenditure between May 2020 and June 2022.

The CDD fellow insists that infractions detailed in the said report make it difficult to accept the government’s use of the pandemic’s response measures as justification for the financial crisis.

“In actual fact, Covid gave us a bounty based on what the Auditor-General has said. We are at the IMF and our economy is in shambles because we used Covid as a facade to do bad things. Very bad things. Extremely bad and diabolical things. We used Covid to plunder the state,” he said on Monday.

Dr Sarpong made these comments on Joy FM‘s Super Morning Show on Monday.

He called for a “spirited campaign to get the monies retrieved.”

The pharmacist was however not too confident that this will be possible on precedence.

“How much of Woyome’s money have we been able to retrieve anyway?” he quizzed.

The Auditor-General’s report also disclosed that the government spent GH¢10 billion of the GH¢21.8 billion mobilised for Covid-19 activities on budget support.

According to the A-G, a total of GH¢21,844,189,185.24 was mobilised for the fight against the pandemic. 

However, out of this amount, only GH¢11,750,683,059.11 was spent on curbing the spread of the virus.