A former assembly member of the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA), Mr David Sabuare, has said that it was erroneous for the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Sheikh I.C. Quaye to clear the TMA Chief Executive of any wrongdoing in the award of three contracts which amounted to ?1.2 billion.

This is because the general assembly of the TMA was yet to rectify the contracts which were awarded in November, last year. Mr Sabuare was reacting to a letter captioned, "Stop harassing TMA Boss," which was published in the 12 September issue of "The Evening News" and authored by Mr. A.B. Okyere.

He noted that the previous assembly members could not endorse the contracts during their two general meetings held before their tenure of office ended because of the tension that characterised the meetings.

According to him, the Regional Minister also erred in clearing Mr Evans Ashong Narh since the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had taken over the investigations and was yet to publish its findings. Mr Sabuare said he saw no reason why the Chief Executive of the TMA should have by-passed laid-down guidelines to award the ?802 million fumigation contract under a certificate of emergency.

He explained that it was unfortunate that the public had been made to believe that the fumigation project was inevitable under the circumstances.

He said the use of hand spraying machines (tagged fumigation) to spray the Kpone refuse dump every two weeks was being done without a contract document. He added that whilst the contract did not pass through tender, the whole amount had been paid to the contractor.

Mr Sabuare, therefore, cautioned Mr Okyere, who authored the letter not to throw dust into the eyes of the public. He noted that previous assembly members had worked hard to build the TMA into a model assembly, as declared by Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, during his first meeting with the TMA.

He said, "the former Chief Executive, Nii Armah Ashietey, who appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament in 1999 and was twice audited by special audit task forces in 2000, and exonerated by the present government, left the assembly with a lot of projects including three libraries, toilet facilities, school renovations, new school buildings and an amount of ?1 billion in its account".

He alleged that what the current Chief Executive had succeeded in doing was to politicise the assembly and had surrounded himself with incompetent party patrons.

According to Mr Sabuare, one issue which needed to be investigated was the construction of the "three sides dwarf wall" around the Tema Manhean Post Office, which Mr Narh claimed he used the MPs Common Fund for. He challenged Mr Narh to produce documentary evidence to support the claim that the wall was funded through the MPs common fund.