Use of US$287m Oil Revenues Undisclosed - Auditor-General Reveals

The 2012 Auditor General's Report has revealed that the John Mahama led National Democratic Congress government has failed to disclose the details of how some US$287 million of Ghana's oil revenues was spent. This represents 52% of Ghana's total oil revenue obtained in 2012, which amounted to $541.07 million as stated by the Minister of Energy in June this year. The Auditor General had in his previous report recommended for oil revenues allocated to the Annual Budget Funding Amount to be treated separately from other non tax receipts for transparency but was ignored. The Auditor General explained that the Annual Budget Funding Amounts by its nature constitute a significant component of the Non-tax Revenue in the Public Accounts. However, during his review of the Revenue and Expenditure Statement, he noted that the total receipts of US$286,554,460.31 being ABFA for 2012 was not disclosed separately in the Public Accounts. The Auditor General noted that after a supplementary budget was approved, and contrary to the law the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning disbursed an additional GHc1.2bn to MDAs. Beside the Electoral Commission, the biggest beneficiary was the Youth and Sports Ministry which operates GYEEDA, and the Chieftaincy ministry which bought Toyota land cruisers for chiefs. Ministers from these two ministries spent four times more than the budget parliament approved for each to spend, all with the sole intention of ensuring that President John Mahama won the 2012 elections. "During my review of the 2012 Consolidated Fund, I observed that the Goods and Services and Assets expenditure of 17 MDAs totaling GH�2,155,845,054 exceeded their revised budget of GH�921,408,338 by GHc1, 234,436,716 representing an adverse variance of 134 per cent. Among the MDAs who exceeded their budget in relation to Goods and Services and Assets included the National Commission on Civic Education, and the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare also overspent its budget by some 325% after being allocated GHc16, 146,295 and rather spending GHc68, 670,647.