?650m missing at Irrigation Dev. Authority

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) are combing through the files of Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) to discover the whereabouts of ?650 million belonging to the authority.

The amount, Chronicle gathered, was the total of an undisbursed budget for 1998 and 1999, which was supposed to cater for some projects in 2000 budget, but could not be traced.

Chronicle gathered that at the end of 1999 about ?559,850,000.00 plus $20,200.00 (?90.9million using ?4,500 as the exchange rate at that time) was left in the coffers of the authority.

In spite of this amount, GIDA claimed it was operating on a deficit budget and had no resources to tackle most of the projects that the said allocation was estimated for.

Reacting to the concerns of the public, Mr. Oduro Gyateng, Chief Executive of GIDA, told Chronicle that before the issue was brought to the attention of his executive he was not aware of any undisbursed or surplus in the 1999 budget, which was supposed to be utilized in 2000 for the execution of the projects.

He explained that the first time he heard about such undisbursed funds was when the Aveyime farmers filed a petition to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture over the issue and a copy of the letter sent to him.

Even though Mr. Gyateng claimed he was not aware of any undisbursed amount, he accused an officer of GIDA of being the brain behind the leakage of information about the missing money to the Aveyime farmers.

He confirmed that his outfit was being investigated by SFO, BNI and the police over the alleged missing amount and other related issues, such as ghost names on their payroll.

Chronicle has learnt that GIDA actually allocated the said funds for some projects, one of which was the installation and extension of power to an electric pump for the Aveyime irrigation project of which, with other associated civil works, GIDA spent an estimated amount of ?230 million.

Other projects which were to benefit from the said surplus amount were rehabilitation works on the GIDA Head Office building and a Management Information System, among others.

The Chronicle learnt that about three years ago, the Aveyime irrigation pump developed problems which prompted the farmers to inform GIDA. It was supposed to be repaired shortly to get the farmers back to business but as at the time of filing this story, GIDA had not demonstrated any concern that it was ready to deal with the problem.

An officer of GIDA, who pleaded anonymity, told the Chronicle that when the pump developed problems, the farmers informed the GIDA Chief Executive, who promised to solve the problem in no time, but nothing was done to rectify the situation. The farmers therefore always sent a high powered delegation to Accra to find out what was withholding the execution of Mr. Gyateng's promise.

The Chronicle gathered that other farmers became privy to the so-called GIDA secret budget during a meeting with some GIDA officials, and upon that they then petitioned the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to authorize GIDA to urgently release the funds for the repair of the electric pump.

GIDA, an organization which is expected to play a key role in the nation's agriculture sector, seems to be operating without a proper accounting system.

Chronicle gathered that until the Auditor General's Department seconded one of its accounting staffs to GIDA, the organization was seriously lacking in basic financial bookkeeping. This gave room to some people to wilfully mismanage the place for their personal gains.

"It is hoped that at the end of the investigations by the SFO and the BNI the rot at GIDA will be brought to public light for everybody to see how the funds of a vital place, like an irrgation authority, were being misappropriated," a farmer remarked.