Pro opposition pressure group, the Truth Forum, has called on government to account for some 300 million cedis invested in the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, a member of the group, Anthony Karbo, said SADA “lost a whooping amount of 320,00 Ghana cedis [out of the 300 million cedis] after supplying 714 bags of hybrid seeds to two service providers.”
“The biggest of this wastage was a sinkage of 48 million Ghana cedis into the guinea fowl and tree planting project,” Karbo added.
Ghanaians still suffering
[contextly_sidebar id=”nNp8isvzkHy6jT3HSL6MrGVUG338H0Mn”]Karbo, who is also the Deputy Director of Communication for the NPP, further stated that, Ghanaians are still suffering despite the introduction of programmes such as SADA among others.
“For the rest of the resources the NDC claim they have invested, all that one can say is that, it is not trickling down into improving the lives of our people. Our people are suffering more than ever, jobless more than ever, and hungrier more than ever. One can only assume that in similar fashion, the rest of the 300 million cedis apparently allocated were all embezzled or craftily wasted.”
Mr. Karbo therefore called on government “to release a breakdown of the 300 million cedis allocated, when it was released and how that money has been used,” to bring clarity to allegations of financial malfeasance against the Authority.
SADA’s financial impropriety
A report by the Auditor General for 2013 revealed some high levels of financial impropriety by SADA.
Some officials of SADA were reportedly involved in corrupt deals during its initial years, notably the use of over GHc 250,000 on unapproved and “wasteful” trips to Birmingham, Berlin and Istanbul.
The payment of GHc 620,000 for the services of four consultants and the abuse of single sourcing procurement in the award of a tree planting contract to ACI constructions, were issues of financial malfeasance that were also brought up against the officials who appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament in June 2016.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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