SADA officials asked to refund GH¢830,000

Six officials of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) are being asked to pay back over 830 thousand Ghana cedis to the Authority.

Two of the six who are board members, are supposed to pay back GH¢60,000 they received from SADA for performing unspecified administrative duties.

That's the focus for today's edition of our investigative series titled the Sad SADA Story.

In December 13, 2012, two board members of SADA, were paid GH₵30,000 each for performing administrative duties.

Auditors said SADA could not produce any agreement between the management and the two board members which authorized them to carry out the administrative duties for fees or salaries amounting to GH₵60,000 in addition to their monthly sitting allowances.

The audit report says board members are supposed to supervise the Chief Executive Officer of SADA and not work under him.

It says the agency should recover the money from the two but the two board members are not the only ones asked to refund money to SADA.

In the 2012 farming season, SADA supplied 714 bags of hybrid seeds to two Service Providers at a time the farming season was over.

Because of this, SADA lost over GH¢320,000. The auditors described the action as negligent and therefore recommended that those responsible refund the amount to SADA.

Joy News Sources say the official in charge of the project is Dr Charles Jebuni, then Chief Technical Advisor to SADA and now acting CEO.

Two other officials have also been asked to pay back 218,000 Ghana cedis to SADA.

The two, Dr. Emmanuel Abeere Imga and Abass Kassim Nyo, were given money to pay for carting maize produced by the beneficiary farmers from the farm gates to the service providers and the Authority's warehouses.

However, they accounted for only 35% of the amount and the audit report has asked them to refund the rest.

Dr Abere Inga told Joy News he had produced receipts covering money he received.

The former CEO of SADA, Gilbert Seidu Iddi has also been asked to refund some 226, 000 Ghana cedis to SADA, being the cost of unapproved trip to Turkey on behalf of some district assemblies.

The report has also ordered SADA to retrieve 6,000 from a consultant, Kennedy Mohammed being the cost of a laptop the authority bought for him. The audit report alleges that poor financial management systems at SADA are responsible for the huge financial losses.