Member of Parliament [MP] for Bongo Constituency in the Upper East Region, Hon. Edward Abambire Bawa, has accused appointees of the Akufo-Addo-led government of "wanton dissipation of public funds" and exhibiting profligate lifestyles by "flaunting polished wedding bands on their ring finger".
Additionally, he claims, state funds are needlessly allocated and distributed to complete ghost projects without recourse to proper accounting procedures.
Subjecting the 2019 Mid-year Budget Review to critical analysis on UTV's "Adekye Nsroma" show, the NDC MP accused the current government of playing on the minds of Ghanaians saying seven months into the year, the Finance Minister is still "listing the same roads captured in the 2018 and 2019 main budget and Monday's mid-year review" that the NPP government under Nana Akufo-Addo, assured Ghanaians that his administration was about to construct or reconstruct
"See, before the John Mahama administration left office, all the infrastratural developments; the Ridge Hospital, the new Terminal 3 of the Kotoka International Airport, the Kwame Nkrumah "Dubai" interchange, the Kejetia market, were undertaken courtesy revenue accrued from the discovery of oil from just the Jubilee field. Under this present administration, we have 3 oil-fields...bringing in over Ghc100bn and yet they have borrowed over Ghc80bn in addition. When you questioned them what exactly they expended all these funds on, they can only cite the free SHS," he lamented.
And even with that social intervention policy, Hon Bawa voiced these reservations.
"....with the free SHS, if you factor this year's academic calender into the equation, funds used to sustain the policy will amount to some GHc3bn. So having borrowed Ghc80bn within two and a half years, and with the three oil-fields generating a combined Ghc100, and government spending GHc3bn on free SHS and some GHc22bn on salaries and emoluments, we ask them (NPP) what has happened to the excess funds?....the Bible says to whom much is given, much is expected; today, the NPP cannot point to any significant project to back the unquantified sums of monies that have passed through their hands," he stated.
Clearly umipressed with how the current government is managing the economy, Hon. Bawa, a one-time Spokesperson for the Energy Ministry during the erstwhile Mahama administration, said the kind of corrupt practices government appointees are engaged in shocks even the devil with the Presidency now turned into a "clearing house" of members accused of graft.
"The country's capital expenditure as a percentage to GDP has moved from 4.5 to 1.2, so you ask yourself where has all these monies been channeled to? It's been needlessly expended, wanton dissipation of funds.... What is sad about all these is that, even with the wasteful expenditure it is within their own circles, non-NPP members have been totally ignored! Their wedding rings have changed. Check out their fingers, they now flaunt and brandish polished wedding rings.
Recently, the CDD (Centre for Democratic Development’s) made public the findings of a study which shows that GHc 9.6 billion has been lost from the public purse as a result of corrupt practices in the country since 2017....President Akufo Addo and his officers have deliberately allocated three times the amount needed to fund the free SHS policy, directing the remaining two-thirds into their pockets without rendering any account to the state,” he alleged.
He insisted on UTV’s ‘Adekye Nsroma’ newspaper discussion segment that “the NPP needs to apologize to Members of Parliament based on the 2019 mid-year budget review read in the House on Monday, because it was an opposite of their promises made to Ghanaians”.
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