The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has expressed worry about the quality of work done on some Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) funded projects in some tertiary institutions across the country.
According to the chairman of the committee, Professor Kwame Adom Frimpong, the amount of money expended on those projects did not reflect what was actually on the ground.
He said for instance projects such as classroom blocks and lecture halls, among others constructed at the University of Ghana (UG), University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA) and University for Development Studies (UDS) did not measure the quantum of money quoted to have been expended on such projects.
Prof. Frimpong further explained that delays in the release of funds to contractors working on ABFA funded projects have accounted for more abandoned projects, denying the state value for money.
He has therefore called for the amendment of the law to give PIAC prosecutorial powers to be able to function effectively.
He was speaking in an interview with the Ghanaian Times on the sidelines of a public lecture with students of the University of Energy and Natural Resources at Sunyani in the Bono Region.
The PIAC chairman also suggested the need for the District Assembly Common Fund to be given to the Administrator of Common Fund by the Finance Ministry for disbursement to the various assemblies to tackle the uncompleted projects.
During a presentation Prof. Frimpong announced that since 2019 to 2022 Ghana oil fields continue to witness a decline in crude oil productions attributing the phenomenon to nature and other factors.
For instance a volume of 71, 439,585 barrels of crude oil was produced in 2019 but declined to 66, 926,806 barrels in 2020.
He urged the government to invest in discovering new oil fields to shore up production, noting that if the trend continued, projections made on oil revenues could be affected thereby affecting national development.
According to him total petroleum revenue in 2022 was the highest for a single year since the inception of petroleum production in Ghana with a figure of
1.43 billion dollars.
Some issues that were raised by the students included lack of implementation of PIAC recommendations by the government and the need to invest the oil money into legacy projects such as the construction of first class roads, among others.
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH SUNYANI
