Deputy Finance Minister Kweku Kwarteng has told parliament on Thursday July 20 that his ministry released an amount of GHS5.26million towards the celebration of the 60th independence anniversary of Ghana.
The figure comprises GHS3.1 million from the Government of Ghana and GHS 2.16million from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).
Out of the total amount of GHS5.26 million, GHS3.0million went to the Office of the Chief of Staff at the Ghana@60 Secretariat whilst GHS100, 000 and GHS2.16million was paid to the 10 Regional Coordinating Councils and 216 District Assemblies respectively.
Actual disbursements, according to the Office of the Chief of Staff, indicated that an amount of GHS2.98million was spent by the Ghana@60 Secretariat out of the figure released from the government of Ghana sources.
An amount of GHS2.16million was spent by the 216 District Coordinating Councils bringing the total expenditure to GHS5.24million of the GHS5.26million released.
This was in response to a question by Juaboso MP Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, who wanted to know how much government spent on the Ghana 60 Years On celebrations.
Mr Kwarteng said the funds were captured “in the 2017 budget statement and therefore the president would be aware of the contents of the statement”.
It would be recalled that in launching the Ghana@60 Planning Committee on February 9 at the Flagstaff House, President Nana Akufo-Addo said the estimated total of GHS20million for the Ghana@60 celebrations would be borne by the private sector.
Mr Akufo-Addo said “corporate Ghana in particular will provide the funds for the anniversary” and that his ambition is to commemorate the anniversary “with minimum or no burden at all on the national treasury”.
“But again, this is a very big test for the government to be very transparent and then assure Ghanaians that they will manage our resources well.
“First and foremost, I will expect them [committee] to share their work plan and work programme with Ghanaians. After that they should develop an anniversary budget and share the anniversary budget with Ghanaians and indicate where they intend raising the resources from. Any resource they receive they should be able to tell Ghanaians where they are getting the resources from. After the anniversary, within one month, I would expect them to come out and account to the people of Ghana or publish a financial statement on the activities of the anniversary.
“Once they are able to go through this, I will be very positive that Ghanaians will be happy with them and we will be happy with ourselves,” he added.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
