Parliament's committee raises alarm over theft of undocumented DRIP equipment at assemblies

Parliament's Local Government and Rural Development Committee has expressed concern over the growing cases of theft involving equipment supplied to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) under the District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP), describing the losses as a waste of public resources.

The committee said the absence of proper documentation and insurance for the machines had made it difficult for assemblies to trace stolen equipment and protect the state's investment.

It raised the concern after several assemblies that appeared before it during a two-week public hearing reported cases of missing DRIP equipment that had neither been documented nor insured.

“The failure to document and insure the equipment has exposed the state to avoidable financial losses, as the absence of records makes it difficult to identify and recover stolen machines,” the committee said last Friday.

The committee's Chairperson, Queenstar Pokua Sawyerr, was particularly concerned by revelations that 4 concrete mixers valued at more than GH¢800,000 had been stolen from the Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly in the Northern Region.

She lamented the lack of documentation covering DRIP machines supplied to assemblies nationwide and questioned how authorities would trace the equipment if it went missing.

“Now, there is no documentation for the DRIP machines in the whole of Ghana, and so if somebody steals them, what happens to the assembly?

“This is huge public investment that is going to waste at our assemblies,” she said.

Appearing before the committee, Sagnarigu Municipal Coordinating Director, Mahmoud M. Osman, disclosed that each of the stolen mixers was worth more than GH¢200,000.

He said the machines were taken from the premises of the Urban Roads Department, located close to the police headquarters, during the violence that followed the 2024 general election.

According to him, the assembly reported the theft to the police but was yet to receive any report establishing the whereabouts of the equipment.

Mr Osman attributed the difficulty in tracing the machines to the absence of supporting documents when they were supplied to the assembly through the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).

“When the machines were given to the assembly, there were no accompanying documents,” he said.

Committee questions circumstances surrounding thefts

The disclosure prompted Mrs Sawyerr to question how the machines could have been removed from the Urban Roads Department's premises without being intercepted, particularly given the facility's proximity to police headquarters.

She suspected that the equipment might have been distributed to assemblies without the necessary documentation because of the urgency surrounding its deployment during the election campaign.

“This is where politics comes in because those machines were brought hurriedly for campaign sake and they did not bring documents,” she said.

The Agona East MP, however, assured that the committee would compile a comprehensive list of assemblies that had reported missing DRIP equipment and consider appropriate interventions to prevent further losses.

Calls for insurance and accountability

The committee's Deputy Ranking Member, Alexander Akwasi Acquah, urged members to prioritise efforts to ensure that all equipment supplied under the DRIP initiative was adequately insured.

He also proposed a comprehensive audit to establish the current status of the machines and determine the extent of their insurance coverage, with the DACF, which supplied the equipment, involved in the exercise.

Meanwhile, the Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA), Conrad Dumbah, identified the lack of proper documentation as a major risk undermining efforts by assemblies to trace missing equipment.

He advised the assemblies to engage the DACF and equipment suppliers to obtain the original records, including vehicle identification numbers (VINs), to address the documentation gaps and improve accountability for the machines.