Regional News of Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Source: Daily Post

CORRUPTION: A.M.A. Presiding Member Caught!

The Presiding Member of the Accra Metropolitan
Assembly (AMA), Hon. Desmond Addo-Biney, has a lot of questions to answer about
several skeletons that the Daily Post has discovered in his wardrobe.
From the illegal citing of his house on government
land through giving permission to developers to put up structures illegally on
government land at the Okponglo Electoral Area in East Legon where he is the
Assemblyman to defrauding the state of thousands of Ghana cedis (millions of
old Ghana cedis), Addo-Biney has his hands in enough shady deals deserving a
lot of explanation or his facing the full riguors of the law.
Investigations by this paper (and other allied
papers) reveal that the Presiding Member of the AMA has illegally put up a
house (his home) on government land, having failed to acquire the permit that
will allow him to do so legally.

The one-storey green-painted house, together with a
mini-restaurant which is being operated by his wife is situated on the premises
of the La Bawaleshie School in Agyiringanor at East Legon. As a result, the
school has been unable to fence its premises because doing so will find the
Presiding Member’s home within the inner perimeter of the school.
Further investigations by this newspaper reveal the
springing up of many structures on AMA land in the area without permit. Most of
the developers, when confronted, say they have been given permission by
Addo-Biney to do so. This conduct is in clear violation of the laws of the AMA
and is resulting in confrontations between AMA officials and the developers.
Then also is the discovery that the Presiding Member
has duped the AMA off the sum of GH¢1,200 and saddled it with an extra cost of
GH¢10,652.00.
According to a confidential report cited by this
paper from the External Audit Team Manager of the AMA to the Metro Director of
Finance, Addo-Biney, though allocated a vehicle , GT7057Z, by the Assembly in
May 2009, and though he was drawing fuel from the account of the Assembly, still
went ahead to collect Travelling & Transport (T&T) allowance for
attending meetings within and without the Assembly.
By the close of accounts in 2010, he had gobbled
GH¢1,200 (¢12million) as T&T in addition to the free car and petrol he was
enjoying. The Audit Manager revealed also that the vehicle broke down and is
costing the AMA a whopping GH¢10,652.00 (¢106.520 million) to put back on the
road.
Tongues are wagging at the AMA about the corrupt
activities of Hon. Addo-Biney. It is now left to see if the powers-that-be will
act quickly to save the tax payers money from his claws.
Meanwhile, other shocking acts of financial
malfeasance on the part of the Presiding Member have been uncovered by the Daily
Post.
More Anon