Patrick Yaw Boamah
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Okaikwei Central, Patrick Yaw Boamah, says value-for-money audit process is influencing government project delays.
He has accordingly called on the Ministry of Finance to find a way to shorten the value-for-money audit process to avoid long delay in the execution of government projects and cost overruns.
Speaking to journalists in Parliament, Mr. Boamah indicated that the public was increasingly becoming impatient over undue delay of projects, and added that the implications of such delays tended to undermine the performance of the government.
“We have realised that a lot of government’s projects are still in the pipeline long after Parliament approved loan facilities for them,” he stated, and continued that the value-for-money audit process that took place was the cause of the delay.
“My concern is that we ought to do a lot more to speed up the value-for-money process in order for the Attorney General to give off his opinion on all those contracts for their execution and for drawdowns to be made,” the MP, who is the Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee, demanded.
Mr. Boamah said he had realised that quite a number of projects in the area of health, roads, and schools were all undergoing value-for-money processes, and disclosed that “some are as far back as July last year when Parliament approved loan facilities.”
“I think we ought to up our game in that area because it is raising a lot of concerns among the public especially, when you know as Member of Parliament and as a member of the ruling party, that the government has done a lot to assuage the plight of Ghanaians in some of the areas people are talking about,” he noted.
The MP said, “I think the media must take key interest for the Ministry of Finance to shorten the process by appointing a lot more people with the expertise to do the value-for-money audit.”
“A lot of people don’t understand this value-for-money process and all they care about is the execution of projects. All they know is that a facility has been approved in Parliament and they want to see the contractors on site,” he posited.
A value-for-money audit is an independent evidence-based investigation which examines and reports on whether economy, effectiveness and efficiency has been achieved in the use of public funds.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House