Minority Spokesperson on Finance and former Deputy Finance Minister, Casiel Ato Forson has said opposition NDC will sue government for using oil money which is meant for infrastructure to fund his flagship programme, the Free SHS.
The Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) states that, after GNPC’s portion has been taken from the oil profit, 70% of the remaining profit is used for the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) where 70% of the ABFA should also be invested in infrastructure with the remaining 30% to other priority areas including education.
Mr Ato Forson has said 217 million US dollars which is approximately 900 million Ghana cedis was attained into the ABFA in 2017.
But he noted that, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta told Parliament hewas going to allocate 156 million to Agriculture but sent only 21 million, Road and Railway Infrastructure was supposed to get 376 million but ended up with 34 million, Physical Infrastructure and Service Delivery in Health had only 6 million instead of GHC50 which was to be sent there.
Also, Service Delivery in Education received 202 million instead of the 211 million cedis which was to be allotted to the sector.
The percentage for infrastructure that has been used for the Free SHS are quoted from the 2017 annual report on the Petroleum Funds submitted to parliament by Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta below;
Paragraph 63 of page 26 reads “Total programmed spending for Physical Infrastructure and Service Delivery in Education amounted to GH₵211.72 million. The amount represents ABFA Goods and Services provisions to support the implementation of Government’s flagship free Senior High School Policy. Similarly, a provision of GH₵50.0 million was made for the improvement of Physical Infrastructure and Services Delivery in Health”.
Whilst paragraph 68 of page 27 of the report states “Total spending on Physical Infrastructure and Service Delivery in Education amounted to GH₵202.38 million. The amount is made up of GH₵196.38 million paid to support the implementation of Government’s Free Senior High School Policy and GH₵6.0 million paid to the Scholarship Secretariat in respect of scholarship claims. The payment to the Scholarship Secretariat was made in February 2017 prior to the revision of the priority areas for the utilisation of the ABFA”.
Explaining his dissatisfaction with Afia Pokuaa on Burning Issues Wednesday, Hon Forson said they are dissatisfied because the money was used to pay school fees instead of using it for what is stated in the PRMA.
“Afia, our worry is that infrastructure is no more a priority of the government and no wonder contractors are no more being paid and the result is the numerous pot holes we find on our roads” he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister for Finance, Kwaku Kwarteng says since government promised to deliver for the people and they are using the money for the right purpose.
He maintaianed that even though government will invest in infrastructure, developing the human resource of the state is also paramount.