Things Fall Apart At Shai-Osudoku Assembly

From Inusa Musah, Dodowa
A deep division and crack in the Shai-Osudoku District Assembly (SODA) in the Greater Accra Region took a new twist over the weekend when the District Chief Executive (DCE) and Budget Officer boycotted an emergency meeting called by the Presiding Member (PM)

Mr Joseph Atwere, Budget Officer, disregarded an assignment his boss, the District Co-ordinating Director (DCD), gave to represent him at the meeting.

Charles Ashalley Djane, the DCD, who had become the darling chief technical advisor of most government appointees and majority of the assembly members, assigned Mr Atwere to represent him at the emergency meeting the PM, Benjamin Manyeh, called to address two different petitions factions in the assembly had presented to him.

The two factions share deferent opinion on the frequent transfer of DCDs to the assembly.

While one party describes the frequency as retrogressing the assembly's development and thus the need to officially seek a hearing from the Local Government Service, the other party argued that they saw nothing amiss with the occurrence, hence there was no need for the PM to summon the emergency meeting.

The DCD's official letter to the District Budget Officer, dated June 16, 2016, and captioned 'Acting in my absence' reads:

“As a result of my inability to be available for work tomorrow Friday June 16, 2016, due to a court summons, I wish to inform you to act in my stead as the most senior officer of the Assembly at the emergency Assembly meeting scheduled for Friday June 17, 2016.

“The District Planning Officer who would have acted had earlier sought permission to solve some private important issues. Submitted for your attention and necessary action, please.”

The letter was copied to the DCE, Emmanuel Anyemi Odoi Lartey and the PM. However, the District Budget Officer ignored his boss' assignment.

On the day of the meeting when the PM called him on phone to refresh his memory of the day's assignment, Joseph Atwere told the PM that he could not be present because he was travelling to Accra that morning on a personal issue.

The phone was put on loud speaker, and when the PM asked him whether he communicated that to his boss for another representative to be assigned to sit in the meeting on his behalf, the Budget Officer explained that he did not find it important to either tell the DCD of his absence or ask any of the Assembly's secretaries to be at the meeting to take down minutes.

The DCD, who was also invited to the emergency meeting, was absent and several calls the PM placed into his cell phone to remind him of the meeting, went unanswered.

Sounding very peeved by the actions of the DCE and Budget Officer, Benjamin Manyeh, the PM, told the assembly members seated at the meeting that it was high time the two were summoned to an assembly meeting to answer questions on their disrespect and some of their recent misconducts towards the assembly members.

Fuming with rage, he said, “For how long must we be treating some of the people at the assembly with kids' gloves? Our DCE, who was also supposed to be seated in today's meeting, has failed to pick my calls.”

The PM, about three hours later when he reached the DCD on phone to inform him of what had happened, received the latter's permission to assign one of the assembly members to take down the minutes.

Last Thursday when The Chronicle sought the DCE's reason for absenting himself from the June 17 emergency assembly meeting, he said: “What emergency meeting? I had more important things to attend to on that day.”

When this reporter further asked him whether he had allegedly petitioned the Local Government Service to transfer the DCD because of some financial leakages the DCD was fighting hard to seal, the DCE reacted angrily and cut the call.