The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has revealed that, an amount of GHC 7 Billion spent by the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, has not been accounted for.
Speaking on the topic: The Role of Integrity and Transparency in Accelerating Ghana’s Development at the launch of the Ghana Corporate Governance Initiative in Accra on Tuesday, Dr. Bawumia said the current government discovered this while interrogating data on the previous government’s expenditure.
Dr. Bawumia added that, the previous government failed to disclose this backlog of expenditure.
“In preparing for this year’s Budget for example, we have been very surprised by the fiscal data, the data on our expenditure and our revenue. As we interrogated the data, we realized to our shock that, expenditure amounting to 7 billion cedis was made by the previous government, but never disclosed. These come from 2014, 2015 and 2016, so where have they been hiding all these years?How are you supposed to manage an economy with faulty data? And so we have to emphasize that, getting the data right is really very key because it throws the entire budget into disarray because you are going into 2017 and suddenly you are told by the way that there is 7 billion you have to pay next year that you did not anticipate. This is the reality.”
He was however quick to add that, the current government is taking measures to resolve these challenges, saying “We have been less than a month in office, but we have taken some steps to accelerate the implementation of some measures that will ensure accountability, transparency and integrity in governance. There is a lot more to do” he stated.
The Vice President is the Head of Government’s economic Management team, and is working with the Finance Ministry to prepare the next budget, which is to be presented in March.
While reiterating government’s commitment to addressing the issues of National identification, he noted that a credible national database is essential to formalizing the economy, and enhancing economic development,.
Dr. Bawumia also stressed the importance of a national address system, which he said will improve the ease of doing business and reduce opaqueness in the economy.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)