The Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has indicated that the cost of the disputed eight hundred thousand cedis (GH¢800,000) allocated for the creation of websites for the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives was the mischievous doing of an unfaced saboteur in the ministry.

According to the Member of Parliament for Suame, the fact sheet that was available to the minister Hawa Koomson, which was also discussed at Cabinet, did not contain the exorbitant quotation.

The sector minister yesterday cleared that the amount that had to be allocated for the website for the newly created ministry was supposed to be eighty thousand cedis (GH¢ 80,000) and not the eight hundred thousand (GH¢ 800,000) that has caused a considerable public uproar.

Speaking to Lantam Papanko on the Ultimate Breakfast Show, Mr Kyei Mensah indicated that the minority members of parliament from the National Democratic Congress were the only group that had the particular document that made reference to a website which was to be created at the whopping amount of 800 thousand cedis.

“Within cabinet, there is a subcommittee on governance which I co-chair and when the minister appeared before us, this didn’t appear. Apparently, somebody at the ministry is being mischievous because the minister appeared before the parliamentary committee and the committee was not briefed about these things however the NDC subcommittee had these details in their hands. How did it happen,” he questioned?

He further pointed out that anyone in the ministry filling in such outrageous figures and leaking same to the minority could as well be the same person escalating the other controversial 29 budget allocations presented to parliament.

When asked how the total sum of all the 29 allocations including the wrongfully quoted 800 thousand added up exactly to the 1.1 billion amount that was approved for the SDI ministry, Mr Kyei Bonsu explained that per his interactions with the Minister, there were suspicions that some items originally planned for expenditure that were omitted from the budget on her blindside.

Mr Kyei Mensah warned that the ministry will be treading dangerously if the person behind these figures is not “tracked, traced and punished.”