MPs accuse, DCEs deny allegations

Kintampo, Oct. 05, GNA - National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament for Kintampo North and Kintampo South have accused their District Chief executives of alleged sabotage of their efforts in helping to improve the living conditions of the people. In separate interviews the MPs said a major problem facing parliamentarians in minority parties was the reluctance of District and Municipal Chief executives to support and encourage them to execute development programmes. The two MPs alleged that memos they submitted to the District Chief executives in their areas were either deliberately delayed or not attended to at all, thus making it impossible for them to utilize their shares of the common fund. Mr. Stephen Kunsu, MP for Kintampo North, told newsmen it took months for the District Chief Executive, Mr. Razak Awudulai, to sanction memos he submitted for the release of funds for development projects. He alleged that memos for the construction of three major access roads in Kintampo as well as funds to assist some needy students were "still resting on the DCE's table" and had not been attended to. "Politics is all about initiating development projects for the people and if such programmes are unnecessarily delayed, then how best can we move the nation forward?" he asked. His counterpart, Mr. Yaw Effah-Barfi, MP for Kintampo South, complained in another interview that a memo he submitted to the DCE, Mr. Yaw Adjei-Duffour, for approval to enable him access part of his share of the common fund for programmes "are still on his desk". Mr. Effah-Barfi expressed concern about how some senior high school students whom he decided to financially support had to leave for school without the assistance, "all because of the delay in the approval of the memorandum by the DCE". He alleged that the DCE had set up a committee that studied his memos before he would approve and that he had not been pleased with the DCE's attitude towards him. The two NDC MPs stressed the need for District and Municipal Chief Executives with such negative attitudes to change "since they are setting a bad precedence". When contacted however, the two DCEs separately dismissed the allegations levelled against them. Mr. Razak Awudulai said the MP was only out "to get at me" and described the allegation as a smear campaign to discredit him. He said memos submitted by Mr. Kunsu "are all wrong, as they all go against the right procedure.'' "I challenge him to take me to the Special Privileges Committee of Parliament if it is true that I unduly delay his memos. The memos are not delayed, rather he backdates them to make them seem recent", Mr Awudulai said. He said it sounded ridiculous for an MP to embark on a road project since his share of the common fund could not be sufficient for the project. Mr Awudulai said most of the access roads at Kintampo were on contract and the contractor was constructing the drains and they would be completed before the 2008 elections. Mr. Adjei-Duffour said there was no iota of truth in the allegations levelled against him by Mr. Effah-Barfi and that there was not a single memo on his table that he had not attended to. "There is an appreciable cordiality between the MP and myself, so I wonder why the MP should allege that I have not been signing his memos.''