A Deputy Finance Minister, Kwaku Kwarteng, has said some GH¢54.3 million quoted by the Finance Minister as budget for a food distribution programme during a three-week lockdown can be accurately accounted for.

This assurance from Mr Kwarteng comes on the back of doubts raised by a section of the public over the cost of the food distribution exercise to the state.

“We are happy to join anyone who says we want accountability on these expenditures, the Auditor General should do the audit. When that has been done, we are happy to engage. We are concerned about how the money that we are instructed by the government to send to those who really spent these monies how those monies are spent,” he told Joy News on Thursday, July 24, 2020.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, disclosed during the presentation of the 2020 Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament on Thursday, July 23, 2020, that government spent GH¢54.3 million on meals during the imposition of restrictions in Accra and Kumasi as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

According to Ken Ofori-Atta, ah additional GH¢50.2 million was also transferred to over 400,000 most-vulnerable individuals under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme.

Mr Kwarteng told people who are doubting the figures that the Ministry is open to working with the auditors to breakdown how related agencies went about the execution of utilising the expenditure.

“Before the auditor has gone to audit and brought you the report, to start giving the impression that somehow you have done your audit already and you are very sure that it was too much, I don’t think it is proper,” he stated.