South Dayi MP and Majority Chief Whip, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has called for a forensic audit of government’s COVID-19 expenditure following fresh revelations about gaps in the Auditor-General’s audit.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, Mr Dafeamekpor said the latest findings by investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni showed that the Auditor-General’s January 2023 report did not cover the full spectrum of COVID-related expenditure approved by Parliament.

He said the Auditor-General subsequently issued a follow-up report on the implementation of the recommendations in the earlier report.

“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.”

According to Mr Dafeamekpor, Mr Awuni’s disaggregation of the expenditure into thematic areas had exposed significant gaps that Parliament must now examine.

He cited the Ministry of Transport's expenditure as an area requiring further scrutiny.

“So it says that 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 similar questions had emerged over expenditure under local government.

“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.”

Mr Dafeamekpor also pointed to discrepancies in the education sector.

“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 said the revelations raised questions about the scope of the special audit commissioned by the Ministry of Finance.

“We are looking at an audit by the Office of the Auditor-General, having been commissioned by the Ministry of Finance on 14th of July 2022 to undertake a special audit, and they limited the special audit to only education.”

Mr Dafeamekpor said Parliament must now return to the Auditor-General for a broader examination of the expenditure.

“So, 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 added: “So 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.”

However, Mr Dafeamekpor rejected the suggestion that Parliament had necessarily been deliberately 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.”