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24.07.2014 Politics

Disability Fund Missing In Afram Plains South

By Daily Guide
Helen NtosoHelen Ntoso
24.07.2014 LISTEN

Helen Ntoso
Monies paid into the Disability Fund to assist people with disability in the Kwahu Afram Plains South District Assembly of the Eastern region from January to June, this year have vanished from the accounts even before a committee is constituted at the district level for the disbursement of that money.

So far GH¢60,000 has been paid directly into the accounts by the Common Fund Secretariat but not a pesewa can be traced in the accounts at the Donkorkrom branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank.

The chairman of the Finance and Administration Committee of the Kwahu Afram Plains South District Assembly, Joseph Attah, who detected the disappearance of the money during his preparation of a trail balance of accounts, told DAILY GUIDE that when the District Chief Executive (DCE), Ibrahim Issaka and the District Coordinating District, who have direct access to the fund were questioned about the 'missing' money, the only reason given was that the former Regional Minister, Helen Ntoso, who has been reassigned to the Volta region, gave them the go ahead to use the money since the district needed money to operate.

A member of the National Council for Disbursement and Monitoring of the Fund, Kwamena Dadzie confirmed the 'misappropriation' of the Disability Fund to DAILY GUIDE, saying the monitoring team, which detected the problem, was expected to visit the district on Wednesday but had to reschedule that official visit because it was summoned to meet the Social Committee of Parliament yesterday.

He said the issue was very serious because directives had been given that the disability fund should never be 'touched' but strictly used for the welfare of the disabled.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Finance and Administration Committee has accused the DCE of sidelining the F&A Committee of the assembly in the utilisation of the District Development Fund, as well as the Common Fund.

According to him, the DCE failed to properly account for an amount of GH¢2 million disbursed to the assembly from 2009 to 2010.

All that the DCE has been telling the committee members is that the assembly is 'owing' and part of the money has been used to defray that amount, he said.

He also noted that the DCE, since assuming office, has been living in rented houses, adding that up to date, the assembly does not know how much has been spent on each rented house the DCE has occupied.

BY Thomas Fosu Jnr

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