Member of Parliament for Okaikwei Central, Patrick Yaw Boamah, is calling for change to speed up value for money audits carried out after the House approves loan facilities for infrastructural development.
According to him, a lot of government projects stall in the pipeline after Parliament approves loan agreements because of delays in the value for money audit.
A lot, he said, has to be done to speed up this process in order for the Attorney General to give an opinion on all those contracts before they are executed and drawdowns are made for the projects to take off.
Mr. Patrick Boamah made the call in an interview in Parliament during which he expressed concern about delays of many government projects because value for money audits have not been completed.
He explained that he has discovered quite a number of projects in the area of health, roads and schools are all undergoing value for money audit almost a year after Parliament approved those facilities.
“I think we ought to up our game in that area because it is raising a lot of public passion especially when as an MP and member of the ruling party you know the government has done a lot to assuage the plight of Ghanaians especially in some of the sectors they are talking about like healthcare and road infrastructure.”
“I expect journalists and the media in Parliament to take this up as an area of study and also follow up on some of the facilities that the House has approved.”
He cited the Kwabenya-Ketase road as an example and wondered what has happened to the project after the US$40 million facility was approved by Parliament.
According to him, Parliament also proved facilities for five hospitals including the Effia Nkwanta Hospital expansion, the Western Regional Hospital at Agona Nkwanta among many others.
All these projects, he said, have not taken off over a year after the loan agreements were approved by the House as a result of the inability to complete the value for money audit on time.
Mr. Boamah noted that if the state is to fast track this process, it will go a long way to help resolve the high cost of government projects and the unnecessary delays.
According to him, inability to complete value for money audit on time leads to delays resulting in the cost of the projects going up because of fluctuations in the exchange rate and other factors.
The delays, he said, also create misconceptions about the government’s performance, which can create insecurity and tension within society as citizens believe projects in their communities have been abandoned while those elsewhere are being executed.
“A lot of people don’t understand there is a process called value for money audit. They don’t care, all they know is that a facility has been approved in Parliament and work has to be done.”
“They don’t know the project has to go through a value for money process for the AG to write an opinion and for the Finance Minister to sign the loan for the drawdown to take place,” he added.
Mr. Boamah noted that this situation is trawling the government’s quest to develop the country and stressed the need to take a second look at the process.
Source: MyPublisher24.com