The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has detailed that it used a whopping amount of GHC827.60 million of the unspent Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) to somewhat meet the deficiency in ABFA receipts brought about by the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related consequences for crude oil prices worldwide, the 2020 yearly report gave by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) states.
This is at difference with the arrangements of the Act which set up the Ghana Stabilization Fund to pad the effect on or support public use limit during times of unforeseen petrol income shortages, the report added.
It further expressed that the Government may have been compelled to make this move on the grounds that the Stabilization Fund didn’t have the required equilibrium to play out its legal command therefore because of covering.
The Annual Budget Funding Account (ABFA) is the record set up by government that gets assignment from oil and gas income on the side of Government spending plans.
“An amount of GHC1, 291,227,014.86 was allocated to the ABFA from the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF), representing an increase of 1.60 per cent 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 Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA).
“Contrary to the PRMA, an unutilised amount of GHC827.60 million form 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.
Source: 3news.com
