MP challenges ACEP over “missing” GHC600m

Source: citifmonline.com - A Member of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, George Loh has asked Ghanaians not to jump to conclusions over reports by the African Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) that GHC600 million was left unaccounted for in a report released by the government. 

ACEP called the government’s ‘Reconciliation Report,’ released at the end of March, into question, suggesting that over 600 million Ghana cedis outstanding balance in the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) was unaccounted for.

According to Energy think Tank ACEP, a report issued by government at the end of March, this year dubbed ‘the Reconciliation Report,’ showed that GHC600 million Ghana, which is part of the ABFA, was not spent in the 2014 Budget year and unaccounted for in the mid-year review .

However, in an interview with Citi News the North Dayi Member of Parliament (MP) suggested that several factors could have accounted for the supposedly missing money.

“For now, I think that we are in a habit of jumping the gun,” he said.

“Having sat as a member of the Public Accounts Committee over time, I realize that at the end of it all you come back to a point where you found that it is some accounting procedure that has been adopted or one that is different from what we expect or there are some figures that didn’t not come at a time that they should which causes some of these things.”

He insisted critics should hold off in drawing conclusion until Finance Minister, Seth Terkper returns to Parliament to provide a clearer picture on the expenditure.

“The fact that ACEP raises it doesn’t mean that it is something that has gone amiss. The Minister [of Finance] has come to Parliament in a mid-year review and a supplementary budget and is asking for some amount of money to do specific things. We have approved those things for him,” he opined.

“At the end of the year, the Minister is again mandated to come and account for all these things through the consolidated account. Let’s wait for the consolidated account. If we are not satisfied at that point that the Minister couldn’t account then we can raise issues,” George Loh added.