Member of Parliament for Bosome-Freho and the Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, says missing signatures and discrepancies in payment records underpin the NPP’s concerns over GH¢16.4 million in expenditure on the evacuation of Ghanaians.
Mr Asafo-Adjei Ayeh questioned entries bearing signatures attributed to very young children, including a one-year-old and a six-month-old.
“When we put together the numbers, we found 442 males, and we are seeing signatures before a one-year-old, a six-month-old. How is the one-year-old able to sign a signature? These are our major issues for which we put figures to it and arrived at our 16.4 million,” he said.
The concerns form part of the Minority caucus call for an independent audit of the government’s GH¢49.72 million evacuation exercise, alleging that records supplied by the Foreign Affairs Ministry leave more than GH¢16.4 million requiring further explanation.
He said these discrepancies informed the figures used by the NPP to arrive at its GH¢16.4 million gap claim.
The Bosome-Freho MP said the documents presented to account for the payments did not adequately reconcile the GH¢5,000 reintegration package and GH¢500 transportation allowance reportedly paid to each evacuee.
Mr Asafo-Adjei Ayeh said the records should have enabled the committee to match each beneficiary across both payment lists.
“If we put together the numbers, we should be able to tell that Akosua signed the GH¢5,000 document, and the same Akosua is signing the GH¢500 document. That is only when there is a reconciliation,” he said.
He explained that the expectation was for both lists to contain signatures corresponding to the 1,964 individuals reportedly paid the two allowances.
However, he said the comparison of the records revealed discrepancies, including differences in the number of signatures appearing on the documents.