Thursday, 19 April 2007 There is one thing nobody can take away from him, that is, his ability to effectively use comic relief to ward off heavy attacks and loosen the tongue of the public on serious and controversial issues. His name is Mr. Kwabena Bartels, Minister of Information and National Orientation and Member of Parliament for Ablekuma North Constituency, the man whose tenure as Private Sector Minister is being audited by The Enquirer’s Chief Editor.
This time, Mr. Bartels, is caught pants down in a heated controversy in his constituency for dipping his hands into the MP’s share of the District Assembly Common Fund and distributing it to his party men.
In the just-ended District Assembly elections, Hon. Bartels dished out a whopping ¢125million of his Common Fund to his favourite party executives to be used to facilitate their campaign during the District Assembly Elections in his Constituency.
The Assembly Common Fund is by law meant for the development of his constituency and not for party politicking. Besides, the District Assembly elections are supposed to be non-partisan. A source within the constituency executives told the Enquirer newspaper that Mr. Bartels, after the promise, sent some of the executives to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to collect a cheque for his share of the common fund. After the necessary formalities, the money was cashed at the Bank of Ghana, and was disbursed to the beneficiaries of the office of the minister.
A further probe by the Enquirer at the constituency revealed that three out of the five people sponsored by Mr. Bartels won the election. Madam Frimpong, when contacted via telephone confirmed receiving ¢25milion. She said the Minister had earlier promised to give her ¢40million to undertake some development projects as her way of campaigning. She said that apart from her, four other people also received ¢25million each. Asked about what she did with the money, Madam Frimpong said she procured bulbs for streetlights and undertook some development projects.
Mr. Ransford Mensah, on the other hand, was evasive on the telephone, as he tried unsuccessfully to swerve questions fired at him by Enquirer. When it became clear that the heat was too much, he said the money was for Mr. Bartels so, he (Mr. Bartels) would be the best person to talk to Mr. Mensah – he later promised to get back to the paper, but never did.
The five recipients of the ¢125 million were Mr. Ransford Mensah, assistant secretary for the constituency, who contested for the Kwashieman Electoral Area, Madam Doris Osei Frimpong, Second Vice Constituency Chairperson who stood for the Otaten constituency and Madam Joyce Acheampong Constituency Women Organizer who contested at the Odorkor Electoral Area.The rest were Mr. Foster Gyimah Duah, former sub-metro chairman, who contested for the Darkuman West Electoral Area and Mr. Samuel Acheampong who stood for the Darkuman East Constituency. Documents available to the Enquirer newspaper indicates that all the five were made to sign against their names before they collected the money.
