Ghana Gov’t spent over $1m on SUVs in Dec 2019 – Bright Simons

Honorary vice president of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has alleged that the then Office of the Senior Minister spent GH¢ 7.4 million in December 2019 on SUVs under the Public Sector Reform Programme.

According to Bright Simons, the expenditure on cars was the biggest expenditure item under the reform programme.

He questioned whether the purchase of the cars has helped achieve the mandate of the programme which is to make Ghana’s public sector efficient.

In a series of tweets shared on his Twitter handle, the IMANI vice president said, “In 2018, the Office of the Senior Minister went to the World Bank with a briefcase full of ideas for this project to transform the public sector. Since then, the biggest completed expenditure was in December 2019, 7.4 million Ghana Cedis. What for? SUV cars.

“… the Public Sector Reform programs under the Senior Minister/SPA that are supposed to make Ghanaian public servants as efficient as those in Singapore … Are cars the trick to fixing government?” he tweeted.

The government in 2018 began the implementation of the Public Sector Reform for Results Project (PSRRP) with funding from the World Bank to help improve service delivery of 16 selected Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

The PSRRP formed part of the National Public Sector Reform Strategy (NPSRS) and was under the supervision of the Office of the Senior Minister.