Prosecute ABFA misusers – SEND Ghana

The Social Enterprise and Development Foundation Ghana (SEND Ghana) has asserted that in most scenarios, Annual Budget Funding Amounts (ABFA) which have been allocated for specific projects across country, are often not properly accounted for.

The organization has, therefore, urged the Auditor General’s Department to utilize its power more effectively in prosecuting institutions, which have failed to give proper accounts of government funded projects.

It added that monies for most national projects and initiatives supposed to benefit citizens are sometimes left uncompleted, therefore posing livelihood challenges to Ghanaians.

In 2014, an ABFA of GHS2, 037,858.73 was allocated for the rehabilitation of both the Keyime and the Ohawu dams in the Agortime Ziope District and the Ketu North Municpal Assembly respectively.

The rehabilitation work was expected to have been completed in 2016 but, till now, there are no details about the completion of the projects by the contractor, Gruma Twins.

At a media briefing in Accra recently, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) in its 2016-2017 project inspection of ABFA projects in Ashanti, Eastern, Greater Accra and Volta regions, said 50 percent of the projects were shoddily done, while six projects in the six other regions were non-existent.

In all, PIAC noted that the purpose of releasing a total of GHS4, 458,601 for the projects, were not achieved.

However, CEO of SEND West Africa, Mr. Siapha Kamara, explained, “this practice of draining the country to the detriment of Ghanaians must stop. The Auditor General, the Office of the Special Prosecutor and other institutions in their capacity must act upon some of these complaints.”

“Those are not the only abandoned projects across the country. We at SEND, have been consistently tasking state institutions like the Auditor General and CHRAJ to act accordingly to save the situation,” he said.

Kamara however said, government must adequately resource those organisations to enable them carry out their mandates effectively.

“It is one thing, willing to do and another, which is the availability of resources, to be able to effectively execute such mandates. NGOs and other civil society organisations must also be funded, if necessary, to expose some of these corrupt public officials and institutions that perpetrate such acts,” he added.