Twenty-eight ex-DCEs faces trial

Twenty-eight former District Chief Executives (DCEs) have been cited for prosecution for financial malfeasance during their tenure of office. Five of them are to face the law courts before the end of the year.

The Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Capt Nkrabea Effah-Dartey (Rtd), disclosed this to the ‘Times’ in Accra on Wednesday. This was when the paper called to find out the outcome of the audit of those DCEs.

He did not state the particular charges that would be preferred against them but said that the twenty-eight out of the one hundred and ten (110) DCEs were identified as not having been able to account for huge sums of money by a forensic audit carried out into their management of funds in their various Districts last year.

The audit reports were submitted to the Ministry last year and later forwarded to the Attorney- General’s Department in April this year for advice, he stated. The Deputy Minister maintained that the delay in the prosecution was due to the manpower problems at the AG’s Department and not the fault of his ministry.

“The Director of Public Prosecutions has however assured us that the first five will definitely face trial before Christmas”, he said. He intimated that all former DCEs cited was that they would soon be charged.