A local governance expert, Issaka Amon Kotei, has said the demand of GHS 5000 from each of the 26 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Northern Region to cater for the President’s visit to the region is bad development that must stop.
According to him, this directive could breed corruption among officials at the assemblies.
A letter purported to be from the Northern Regional Coordinating Council has directed the 26 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the region to contribute GHS5,000 each to help fund a three-day tour of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in that part of the country.
The letter giving the directive is dated Friday, September 29 and signed by Chief Director, Alhassan Issahaku.
It gave the assemblies up to Monday, 2 October to bring their contributions.
The letter explained that the contributions are being taken to put together the required arrangements for a successful tour of the President from October 6 to 8, 2017.
“Each assembly is required to contribute an amount of five thousand Ghana cedis (GHC5,000) payable by Monday, 2nd October, 2017,” the letter said.
But speaking on this matter in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5FM on Monday, October 2, Mr Kotei said: “The regions are not going to cook for the President and so why the amount of money?
“We have to be serious with this. People will take advantage of the President’s visit and misbehave financially.”
He added: “We need funds to develop the districts, we promised each village a dam and not even one of them has been built and we are going to pump in this money into the President’s visit. This is disturbing because it opens the door for corruption.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
