The Free Press in the main front page story says although the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) has put up a spirited defence to deny last Wednesday lead story of the paper, "we still insist that 2.6 billion cedis of the district assemblies' common fund cannot be accounted for. The Free Press says the statement of account amounting to 2,905,000,000 on the one hand and the 95,000,000, at bank, amounting to 3,000,000,000 being the version of the MLGRD, does not satisfactorily explain how the 2.6 billion cedis got missing from the common fund. According to the paper, the Auditor-General's Report for the year ended 31st December, 1995, had asked the MLGRD to furnish the department with details of how the fund was disbursed. This the ministry has not done until the Free Press came to "open the Pandora box" on the issue. GRI