General News of Friday, 13 October 2023

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Sanitation minister rejects reports of receipt of US$125 million from World Bank

Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Freda Prempeh Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Freda Prempeh

Freda Prempeh, the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, has refuted reports suggesting her ministry received $125 million from the World Bank.

These reports indicated that the funds were meant for a five-year project to train environmental inspectors in prosecuting sanitation offenders.

In response, Minister Prempeh clarified that these reports misrepresented her ministry's activities.

Speaking during the commissioning of 38 institutional toilet facilities in the Ashanti Region, she stated that the $125 million mentioned in the reports was actually the total budget for the ongoing four-year Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation and Water project, which commenced in 2021.

She added that the training of environmental prosecutors is just one component of this broader project which would span 4 years.

“Recently, we saw a viral video, a publication going around indicating that the World Bank had given the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources $125 million.

"Let me put on record here that the World Bank has not dumped any money in my office as is being speculated around that 125 million has been given to the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources,” she said.

She further emphasized that the $125 million referred to a larger project that had multiple components but had not been allocated to her ministry in a lump sum.

“Indeed, they have a project that together has about four components which sum up to $125 million which was started years ago, some being taken in Kumasi and some in Accra.

"And yet somebody somewhere decided to do his own story that $125 million had been given to the Minister of Sanitation. No such monies have been dumped in my office,” she stated.

ID/MA

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