78 ex-DCEs to be prosecuted

Government is to take civil action against 78 former District Chief Executives (DCEs) who served during the tenure of the erstwhile NDC, after the auditor-general’s department has implicated them in cases of misapplication of funds that caused financial loss to the state.

Thirty-two other have been cleared of any wrongdoing as the accounts of their various districts were audited and the ministry of finance has accordingly been notified through the chief of staff of their end-of-service claims to be worked out for them to be paid.

Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu who announced this at a media encounter in Accra, explained that the office of the Attorney-General is handling the cases involving the 78 former DCEs who were implicated in wrongdoings by the Auditor-General’s report and civil action would be taken against them.

The minister noted that the ultimate aim to ask the former DCEs to refund the money and those who will not be in favour of a decision yet to be taken by the office of the A-G have the constitutional right to seek redress in court.

“The Attorney-General is working on them and we will make sure he takes up the cases,” Baah-Wiredu said, adding the right of those implicated need to be respected bearing in mind the constitutionality of the issue and the processes involved.

He told the media that measures would be put in place to avoid the re-occurrence of such fraudulent activities.

The minister reiterated the NPP government’s commitment to electing DCEs, instead of appointing them, as was the case in the past. “We are committed to the election of DCEs and ultimately, we’ll get there,” adding portions of the constitution would have to be amended to facilitate the process.