Isaac Adongo, a senior member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, has accused the Office of the President of reckless and irresponsible spending after Parliament approved GHv 2 billion₵2 billion for the Office of the President in the 2024 budget. .
According to him, many agencies under the President’s Office were criticized by the Finance Committee for spending too much of their budget.
The Office of the Chief of Staff, the Press Office, and the Cabinet Secretariat all exceeded their allocated funding.
Mr. Adongo questioned where government officials found additional funds and called for leadership by avoiding overspending.
He emphasized that the Office of the Chief of Staff, which is under the Blue House, is spending extremely “recklessly.”
“Mr. Speaker, how on earth can you get a release of 131 million GH and spend 144 million GH? You are given 133 million GH and magically How do you get that money? This means that something is wrong there and whether you release funds to the office or not, the office Or that the chief of staff is doing the spending.
“We need to find out how the office is making money even though it has not been released yet. Expected to spend GH [but] You are spending GH₵144 million and we do not know where the money came from. ” he said.
Mr. Adongo further disclosed that the Cabinet Secretariat has a budget of GH₵4.5 million₵5 million, saying that it had spent GH₵7.6 million as of September, when the fiscal year was not yet over.
“Obviously, the Office of the President is not part of our budget. They spend it as they please, don’t care about diversion, they just spend money they don’t know how they got it.
“Now, when we budget GH₵5 million, the year is not yet over. [and] “We have already spent GH₵7.6 million and by September we have exceeded our budget by nearly 3 million, which is in violation of the Public Finance Management Act,” he stressed.
An official of the Finance Commission claimed that the Press Secretariat, which is also under the jurisdiction of the Presidential Office, spent GH 89,000₵2000GH₵2000GH₵2000GH₵2000GH₵2000GH.
“I don’t see how the Office of the President is able to find funds that haven’t been handed over. If you release GH₵89,000 and you expect them to spend GH₵89,000, they will spend GH₵162,000.
“So Mr Speaker, this is the office that is supposed to tell the whole government how to be responsible in managing its finances, and it is this office that is really guilty of being fiscally irresponsible.” said Adongo.
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