Don’t politicize disability fund disbursements

Akatsi North District Association of People with Disabilities has cautioned individuals and entities against politicizing issues relating to the Disability Fund disbursement in the area.

Mr. Xorlali Daomekpor, Secretary of the Association, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview that though the Association, as a Civil Society Organization, and the Fund could not be insulated from public view, views regarding them must be factual.

He was reacting to a GNA news item in which Mr. Alex Adenyo, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Akatsi North Secretary, rubbished as untrue report by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the Assembly was the best performing Assembly in the country in many areas including the disbursement of fund to disability groups.

Mr. Doamekpor said Mr. Adenyo’s claims were not true, adding that he would have done a better job by consulting the Association on the disbursement of the fund.

“We of the PWD here have found the disbursement of the fund so easy in the new district and continue to ponder why the challenges and denials previously”, he said.

Mr. Paul Ahiave, a member and beneficiary of the fund, corroborating the secretary, said things “currently are unlike in the old Assembly from which the new one was carved.”

“No one must bring the disability groups and the Assembly into disrepute unnecessarily, under the pretext of seeking our welfare,” he said.

Ms Linda Quist, District Director, Department of Social Welfare, described Mr. Adenyo’s claim as uninformed and that since the Assembly’s inception in 2012, her department had registered 350 People with Disabilities in the area of which 252 applied for financial support.

She said of the 252 applicants, 30 benefited from the fund in the first batch, followed by 76, then 40 each in the third and fourth groups, while another 38, making the fifth group were due for theirs, bringing the number of beneficiaries to 224.

“With our records, only 28 applicants are yet to be considered and it is a fact the Assembly is satisfactorily handling the percentage of the District Assembly’s Common Fund,” she said.