NPP BLASTS MAHAMA FOR 'CHOPPING' GHC300M SADA CASH
President John Dramani Mahama and his National Democratic Congress government have been accused of misusing of a huge sum of GHC300 million allocated to the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority Fund for the development of the northern part of the country.
Interestingly, the GHC 300 million represents a paltry 30 per cent of the GHC1 billion the NDC government promised to allocate to SADA.
According to the Truth Forum of the New Patriotic Party, the worry of the people in the northern part of the country is not very much about the failure of the Mahama government to honour the GHC1 billion pledge to SADA, but how the meager GHC 300 million has been misused.
According to the 2012 Manifesto of the NDC, GHC 260 million Ghana cedis had been allocated to SADA by 2012, instead of a promised GHC600 million. According to the 2013 and the 2014 Budgets, GHC20 million was allocated to SADA per year while there was virtually no mention of SADA in the 2015 and 2016 Budgets.
"This means that the NDC government has only delivered at most 30% of what it promised the people of the North but ladies and gentlemen, the critical question to ask is, how even these meagre amounts compared to what was promised, has been utilized," Anthony Abayifa Karbo, a leading member of the Truth Forum stated yesterday at a press conference held at Wa in the Upper West Region.
According to Anthony Karbo, the SADA funds which were released "to ostensibly help the Northern poor and uplift them from suffocating poverty, was virtually pilfered into private accounts and pockets and into buildings and cars for the President, his friends and family while the ordinary man and woman of the North have been left poorer and more deprived."
"Indeed ladies and gentlemen, the record is even worse when John Mahama government from 2012 is isolated, the record is even pathetic! Not only has the government of John Mahama per their own records allocated only GHC 40 million out of a promised GHC 400 million cedis they should have allocated per their own manifesto promise in 2008, but they have also supervised and led the wanton thievery of these resources which were allocated in the name of Northern development," Karbo stated.
He added: "What John Mahama and his NDC government have achieved is ensuring that cronies of the government enrich themselves obscenely in the name of Northern Development and the destruction of the Northern Brand and even environment. And there appears no end in sight to this legacy of shame and the nightmare the people of the North are seeing today."
Karbo made reference to the fact that various audit reports had revealed "the amazing levels and shameless schemes with which these resources were stolen by men close to the 'Northern President'."
He cited some examples: Some officials of SADA were involved in corrupt deals notably the use of over GHc 250,000 on unapproved and "wasteful" trips to Birmingham, Berlin and Istanbul.
Then was the payment of GHc 620,000 for the services of consultants. Indeed, the initial Audit Report put this amount at over GHC 1million Ghana cedis.
The four beneficiaries were named as Dr. Charles Jebuni, Chief Technical Advisor, who took a total of GH¢437,206.00 in a period of 22 months (GH¢19,873.00 monthly); Salifu Mahama, Engineer for Housing, who took a total of GH¢96,000.00 for 16 months (GH¢6,000.00 monthly); and Kennedy S. Mohammed, Resource Mobilization, who collected a total of GH¢75,000.00 for 10 months (GH¢7,500.00 monthly).
In the 2012 farming season, SADA supplied 714 bags of hybrid seeds to two service providers at a time the farming season was over. Because of this, SADA lost over GH¢320,000.
The biggest of all these wastages, according to Karbo, was the sinking of GHC48 million into Guinea Fowl rearing and Tree Planting projects.
"For the rest of the resources that the NDC claims to have invested, all one can say is that, for whatever reason, it has not trickled down into improving on the lives of our people. Our people are now suffering more than ever, jobless more than ever, and hungrier and thirstier more than ever. Ladies and Gentlemen, one can only assume that in similar fashion, the rest of the GHC 300 million apparently allocated were all embezzled or craftily wasted," he told the media.
He challenged President Mahama and his government "to immediately release a full breakdown of the 300 million Ghana cedis allocated and when it was released as well as what it was used on."
More disturbing, according to the Truth Forum, is the fact that President Mahama, after misusing the funds, has kept mute on anything that has to do with SADA, his own pet project to help his people from the northern region.
"It is instructive to note that in all his rounds in the five (5) SADA regions during the just ended Accounting to the People Tour, no mention was ever made of SADA, its supposed legacy as of now and what the future holds for it. The pressing question is why the President seems to have totally abandoned this Pet Project of his and why he is no longer bold to even name it and account to the Northern people on how 'well' they have managed SADA and bridged the gap between the North and South as they originally promised," Karbo noted.
President Mahama's unwillingness to touch the SADA subject these days, according to Karbo, "is an admission of his failure and the legacy of shame he is leaving with regards to Northern development and the many promises he made to the people of the North especially in 2012 when he led the onslaught to tell Northerners that with a Northern President, the North would see the deserved commitment and attention for development."