The Health Committee in Parliament has set February 7 as the date to commence a public hearing on the Covid-19 expenditure by government.

The Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Nana Yaw Ayew Afriyie disclosed this to JoyNews on Top Story on Monday, January 23.

“We are to start hearing on the 7^th of February at 1 pm. Because of the business of the house, we had to write to the speaker to grant us the need to commence our sitting when we resume Parliament,” he said.

It is expected to be the first meeting of the Committee when Parliament resumes sitting.

This comes after the Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu issued an audit report on the covid-19 expenditure between March 2020 to June 2022.

The report cited many infractions by the Health Ministry with regard to the covid-19 expenditure.

Dr. Nana Yaw Ayew Afriyie said the Auditor-General’s report would be referenced during their hearing if need be.

The Auditor-General cited a number of corrupt activities which include; payment of a total of US$607,419.02 out of US$4,049,460.12 for procurement of 26 ambulances which were not delivered, payment of unapproved ¢151,500 by the Information Ministry to its own staff as covid insurance, payment of $80m worth of vaccines by government which was not delivered, amongst other infractions.

Immediate past Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo while reacting to the report, called for a surcharge of persons responsible for various infractions in the report.

This, he explained, would curb the “culture of impunity” in the public sector.

“I was waiting to hear that following this report, these people who are misusing money have been surcharged because if we do not do that, we can continuously audit thousand and one times, but we will continue getting these infractions and even people get emboldened because they feel that nothing will be done as a result of this report,” he said in an interview on The Pulse, Monday.