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Parliament
Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, Speaker of Parliament

I am happy the Minister has come to respond—Speaker Bagbin

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has been commended for appearing before Parliament to account for how COVID-19 money approved by the House since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, was applied.

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, who commended the Minister, observed that it was in the interest of the government for Ghanaians to constantly be updated on how their taxes were being utilised.

“I want to commend the minister for responding to the call of the house and also urge that it is in the interest of the government for Ghanaians to constantly be informed about their taxes or revenue generated.

“This is a sign of good governance and I am happy the minister has come to respond to these questions,” the Speaker said in Parliament today (June 22) when Mr Ofori-Atta appeared to answer questions on how much Ghana mobilised in resources to fight the pandemic.

Under the standing order

The Speaker stated that the minister has accordingly responded through a statement under the standing order 70 of the house.

“The minister has, according to the mandate of the Ministry of Finance, given us the broad lines of the monies it has released to the various ministries and agencies for the purpose of countering the onslaught of the COVID-19 for 2020 and 2021.

“Without those funds, I do not know how many of us would have been alive today,” he said.

We performed better

Mr Bagbin said some Ghanaians lost their lives but at the end of the day the country Ghana performed far better than many countries in the world.

“Some parliaments lost members, other countries lost ministers, judges and so many important dignitaries both traditional and social and so some work has been done by the government but that does not justify that we should also not perform our functions of ensuring that the monies were utilised efficiently, effectively and economically.

“It is important to do that to allay the fears of Ghanaians because this issue is of serious public concern,” the Speaker added.

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