General News of Wednesday, 1 November 2000

Source: GNA

French government to finance water project

The NPP Member of Parliament (MP), for New Juaben, Mr Yaw Barimah has said the government of France has agreed to offer about 40 million dollars loan towards finding a lasting solution to the perennial water problem in the municipality.

Addressing a political rally on Sunday, he refuted allegations by his political opponents that he had not done enough to merit being returned to office. Mr Barimah said he used his share of the MPs Common Fund to finance a number of development projects but said about 45 million cedis representing half of the total amount, has not yet been released to him.

He said his efforts were being thwarted by the former Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Emmanuel Adu Boateng, Mr George Boateng NDC parliamentary candidate and Matthew Boadi Sarpong, Chairman of the Works Committee of the Assembly and CPP parliamentary candidate for the December 7 elections.

Mr Barimah has therefore invited the two candidates to engage him in a debate on the local FM station on the development and other issues in the municipality. He said the Municipal Assembly has so far received 7.8 billion cedis as its share of the Common Fund yet not much development has taken place. Mr Adu Amankwa, a leading member of the NPP, appealed to the electorate to vote for the NPP and "not those who want to go into politics just to make money."