Asuogyaman District given ultimatum

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 (Page 17)

THE Presidential Commission probing the Ghana@50 celebrations has given a four-day ultimatum to the Asuogyaman District Assembly to find out the unit price of 10,746 plastic cups it received from the Ghana@50 Secretariat.
The District Co-ordinating Director of the Assembly, Mr Kofi Agyei-Baffour, had informed the commission that a total of GH¢242,000 was deducted from the assembly’s share of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) for the payment of the cups.
Mr Agyei-Baffour’s testimony prompted a member of the commission, Mr Osei Tutu Prempeh, to enquire from him whether or not the assembly questioned the basis for the deduction of the money to which Mr Agyei-Baffour answered in the negative.
He also told the commission that he did not know the unit price for the anniversary cups and had also not made enquiries from the secretariat.
The commission then directed Mr Agyei-Baffour to officially write to the Ghana@50 Secretariat to enquire about the unit price for each of the anniversary cups and submit his findings to the commission by the end of this week.
Mr Agyei-Baffour took the opportunity to appeal to the commission to recommend that moneys should not be deducted from funds of assemblies in future, because such deductions impeded development.
The Chairman of the Commission, Mr Justice Isaac Duose, also stated that the Administrator of the DACF would also be invited to explain the rationale and the basis for the deduction of the moneys from the accounts of the district assemblies.
He said the commission would also want to know the beneficiaries of the moneys that were deducted, because as far as he was concerned, moneys sent to district assemblies were meant for physical development.
During the turn of the Lower Manya Krobo District Assembly, the Finance Director, Mr Isaac Sintim-Aboagye, said the then District Chief Executive received money and other souvenirs meant for the independence anniversary celebrations.
According to Mr Sintim-Aboagye, the DCE sold some of the anniversary T-shirts, cloths and other souvenirs and rendered account of GH¢3,500.
He further explained that the then DCE, Mr David Sackitey Asare, also used GH¢1,400 realised from the sale of the souvenirs on other expenditures.
Asked what those expenditures were, Mr Sintim-Aboagye said he would later provide details on the expenditures to the commission.
He said a total of GH¢7,500 out of the allocated GH¢10,000 was spent on decorations for the anniversary, and stated that if the figure was considered in isolation, “a different picture would be created”.
For his part, the District Co-ordinating Director of Lower Manya Krobo, Mr Adjei Kingsley Boahene, said the DACF deducted GH¢39,000 from the assembly’s share of the Common Fund.
The District Co-ordinating Director for the Atiwa District Assembly, Eric Hini, who first took his turn, told the commission that the assembly received GH¢10,000 from the Ghana@50 Secretariat through the Regional Co-ordinating Council on March 2, 2007.
He said that 2,500 T-shirts, 1,500 baseball caps and a quantity of anniversary cloths were also received, adding that 1,654 T-shirts were still in stock, while 523 of the baseball caps were also in stock.
The Co-ordinating Director of the Birim North District Assembly, Mr John Nana Owu, also gave an account of how the district expended money allocated for the anniversary celebrations.