Ministry of Finance spent GH¢827 million oil cash on COVID-19 impact in ABFA receipts

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) reported that it utilized an amount of GH¢827.60 million of the unspent Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) to partially meet the shortfall in ABFA receipts caused by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated effects on crude oil prices globally, the 2020 annual report issued by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has announced.

This is at variance with the provisions of the Act which established the Ghana Stabilization Fund to cushion the impact on or sustain public expenditure capacity during periods of unanticipated petroleum revenue shortfalls, the report added.

It further stated that the Government may have been forced to take this action because the Stabilization Fund did not have the needed balance to perform its statutory mandate as a result of capping.

“An amount of GH¢1, 291,227,014.86 was allocated to the ABFA from the PHF, representing an increase of 1.60 percent over the allocation to the ABFA from the PHF in 2019.

“The 2020 – 2022 new priority areas selected for ABFA disbursement were not presented to parliament for approval in the 2020 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, as required by the PRMA.

“Contrary to the PRMA, an unutilized amount of GH¢827.60 million from 2017 – 2019 was spent to partially meet the shortfall in ABFA receipts caused by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated effects on crude oil prices globally,” the report said.