Ada East MP, DCE In Trouble �

The adrenaline of the Member of Parliament (MP), Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe Ghansah, and the District Chief Executive (DCE) of the Ada East District in the Greater Accra Region, is running high, following pertinent issues raised by temper-flaring concerned members of her constituency over her management of the Assembly�s funds. The members who also double as executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are demanding for the MP to be investigated and shown the exit as Minister of State at the Presidency in charge of Social and Allied Institutions before things spiral out of control. Their grievances are based on the fact that the second phase of a refurbishment contract project involving a Lorry park at Kasseh, Ada, according to the MP, was executed at whopping cost of GH�331, 000.00. �We were shocked to our bones when we saw the figure being bloated by the MP like that because this same project had been budgeted for by the assembly at a cost of GH� 40, 000.00�, they asserted. Even though the MP claim the project was sole-sourced, the assembly members have revealed that a 3-day meeting held at the District Assembly and presided over by the Presiding Member, Hon. Jacob Ceasar, made it clear that management of the assembly rather loaned the MP an amount suspected to have been paid to the assembly by Trassaco Estate Developers without following due process. The deal, they noted, was used by the MP for the payment of the contract she personally awarded in the sum of GH 331, 000.00, as against the approved budget of GH40, 000.00 by the assembly. After pointing it out that the contract was not channeled through the right procurement procedure, the assembly members observed it was inappropriate on the part of management; especially when their action flouts the model standing orders part 18, section 69 of the Local Government Act 462, of the 1993 Constitution for District Assembly. Upon deliberations in the course of the meetings, the assembly members said they realized that about 17 contracts had been awarded with most of them being foreign to them and thus had not been approved by the Accra Coordinating Council. Adding that those contracts were not covered by the 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 approved composite budgets, they cited the Rehabilitation of 6 unit classroom block, office, store and provision of rain water system and a rehabilitation of 3 unit Nursery Block, office and store all at Bedeku, Construction of 1 No. 12 seater water closet toilet at Big-Ada Lomobiawe, a children�s ward at Ada East District Hospital and Distribution of 4000 exercise books, as an example to buttress their point., Aside awarding those contracts without the knowledge of the assembly members, they noted another contradiction to the standing orders being the provision of the list of the awarded companies, the contracts and the quotations without the names of the contractors and their contact addresses. The situation, the paper learnt made the assembly members accuse their District Chief Executive DCE Hon. John Nurudeen Ahortu of not being abreast with administrative norms. They hinted that his deficiency and governing skills has weakened the system of the assembly and that if steps were not taking by the President to arrest the situation, most of the staff members had confided in them that they would seek transfer to other assemblies. The DCE, who doubles as the Assembly Member for Pediatorkorpe Electoral Area, was also accused of allowing himself to be manipulated by the MP to control the school feeding Programme. �Our checks revealed that some of the brothers of the MP were awarded most of the contracts. One of them even had two contracts, even though management was aware that his brother who got the two contracts was awarded the same contract again given in 2010. Though he was paid almost all the contract sum back then, he could not complete it resulting in the double instance�, the assembly members alleged. The assembly members further observed that the GH� 447, 74862 contract awarded for the construction of children�s hospital was over and above the threshold of the assembly, convincing them the more that the DCE was incompetent. �Whiles the assembly struggles to fund projects here in the district, it came to light at a meeting that management shares money, ranging between GH�125.00 and GH� 100.00 amongst themselves every Friday, without recourse to rules and procedures�, they underscored. Meanwhile, all attempts to speak to the MP as at the time of filing the story hit on a snag, as calls made to her phone were not answer nor returned.