Disclose expenditure on sanitation – ASEPA to Adda

The Alliance for Social Equity & Public Accountability (ASEPA) has called on the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Joseph Kofi Adda, to provide details on expenditure in relation to government’s campaign to tackle sanitation in the country.

“It is therefore important that as a public accountability group we demand answers from the ministry because it was given a budget last year to embark on a sanitation campaign. Bill boards were built, other huge expenditures were drafted.

“If we cannot see the correlation between those expenditures and the improvement of general sanitation in the country which is the major reason for which those resources were allocated, then, the resources of the state have been wasted and the Minister must answer for it,” Executive Secretary of ASEPA Mensah Thompson stated in a release on Friday, 23 February 2018.

ASEPA also urged the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to also “invite the sanitation minister to render proper accounts to the House on the status of the national sanitation programme”.

Below is the full statement:

TELL US HOW MUCH HAVE BEEN SPENT ON THE NATIONAL SANITATION CAMPAIGN SO FAR-ASEPA WRITES TO SANITATION MINISTER

As part of the government's promise to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa, a national sanitation programme was launched last year.

A few months after the launch of the national sanitation campaign that was characterized with heavy billboards in the major cities, Accra has become dirtier than before.

Not just Accra, almost all the major cities like Kumasi, Cape-Coast, Takoradi, Tamale and even Sunyani that used to be one of the cleanest cities have been gutted with filth and chocking drains.

In a recent survey conducted by ASEPA, respondents scored the Sanitation Ministry as the worst performing ministry in 2017 and respondents cited several reasons for scoring the ministry the poorest.

Primary of those reasons were the fact that the inception of a specific ministry for sanitation has not contributed in any way towards the improvement of sanitation conditions in the country but on the contrary the cities have even become more dirtier after the inception of the substantive ministry.

It is therefore important that as a public accountability group we demand answers from the ministry because it was given a budget last year to embark on a sanitation campaign. Bill boards were built, other huge expenditures were drafted.

If we cannot see the correlation between those expenditures and the improvement of general sanitation in the country which is the major reason for which those resources were allocated then the resources of the state have been wasted and the Minister must answer for it.

We also want the minister to tell Ghanaians, what safety mechanisms have been put in place by the ministry to prepare major cities like Accra for the rains this year so that we can be rest assured that when the rains come we are likely to experience lower level flooding and that lives and properties would be properly protected throughout the rainy season.

We also urge the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to also upon the receipt of a copy of this letter invite the sanitation minister to render proper accounts to the house on the status of the national sanitation programme.

Signed: Mensah Thompson Executive Secretary-ASEPA