Former Chief Justice and Chairperson for the Covid-19 National Trust Fund, Sophia Akuffo, says, the fund judiciously used contributions received to fight the pandemic.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu; the Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak; and the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, filed the motion which sought to constitute a bi-partisan parliamentary committee chaired by a member of the Minority to probe COVID-19 expenditure.
The Private Member’s Motion was captured in the order paper for Thursday, November 4th, 2021, but the first deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, dismissed the private member’s motion on the floor.
According to him, the work of such a bi-partisan committee is already provided for by the Constitution, to be conducted by the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The Minority in Parliament had also previously petitioned the Auditor-General to audit government expenditure on food, and water government supplied to the vulnerable during the three-week COVID-19 partial lockdown period.
But speaking as the special guest of honour at a Community Health and Wellness Day under the auspices of Okuapehene Oseadeeyo Kwasi Akuffo, the chief justice said the fund was used for its intended purposes.
“Through the immense contributions and support from Ghanaians, the trust fund has supported the implementation of various projects and provided relief intervention in various forms. These interventions comprise of the distribution of PPEs to medical facilities, covid-19 care centres, special isolation centres, hospitals, small health centres, chips compounds, labs, covid-19 testing centres as well as providing support to the needy and vulnerable persons with food items and cash contributions across the length and breadth of the country,” She explained.
Sophia Akuffo also urged all Ghanaians to continue to contribute to the fund as COVID-19 rages with socioeconomic effects on the country.
She called on Ghanaians to ignore naysayers to take the covid vaccine and also adhere strictly to the preventive protocols.
“We vaccinate our children against measles, whooping cough and all the killer diseases, that’s why we’ve got such robust young healthy children in this country so what is this about covid which is even more dangerous than some of these diseases. What is significant is the education on the continued adherence to the prevention and safety protocols of regular handwashing with soap under running water, regular use of alcohol-based hand and surface sanitisers, the wearing of masks, the observing of the appropriate physical distance and very importantly get yourself vaccinated”.
The free health screening organized by Okuapehene as part of activities to celebrate his birthday was in collaboration with Ezekiel Ansah breast cancer awareness foundation, Mutti Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Vision Spring Company Limited.
Hundreds of people were screened for eye problems, breast cancer, diabetes malaria check, blood pressure among others. There were free consultation services with clinicians at the program.
