Funds that accrued from former President John Mahama’s 10% salary cut policy were channeled into the construction of Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHIPS) compounds in the country, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, a former Deputy Minister of Communications, has said.
According to him, the policy was introduced for a purpose, and, so, was used for exactly that.
On Wednesday, 9 August, the Deputy Controller and Accountant General Kwesi Owusu told the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament that the money cannot be traced.
Mr Owusu said: “…As to what they have done with the money that one is not an area for us to answer because it was not statutory deductions which we should have taken and then say pay to SSNIT or pay to GRA. This one was a voluntary deduction so when you deduct, you give it to the one who asked you to deduct on his behalf.”
But responding to this assertion on his Facebook page on Thursday, August 10, Mr Kwakye Ofosu said: “A total of GHS2,190,718.30 had been deducted as of the end of December,2016. A total of GHS 2,130,718.30 had been paid to contractors who had either completed or were working on the CHPS compounds. Regarding the CHPS compounds themselves, a total of five had been completed at Gympokrom and Kwame Prakrom in the Upper Denkyira East District, Ada East in Greater Accra, Nkwanta Number 1 & 2 in the Western Region and Abontonso in the Afram Plains North District of the Eastern Region.
“Another five were almost completed at Faso Bator and Supon in the Afram Plains North District as well as Dome, Gadokope and Samankwe in the Afram Plains South District.
“Another one was nearing completion at Tetegu Old Town in the Greater Accra Region. The last one was at foundation level at Ho Zongo as of the time we were leaving office,” he added.
He, therefore, disputed assertions that the money cannot be traced. “Any claim, therefore, that the monies so deducted cannot be accounted for, is most misleading and inaccurate.”
Source:Ghana/AccraFM.com
