Ho MCE accused of awarding projects without appropriate approval

Members of the Ho Municipal Assembly in the Volta Region have accused the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Ho, Divine Bosson of autocratic leadership.

According to the assembly members led by their Presiding Member (PM) Mawunyo Agbe, the MCE in recent times initiated some projects in the municipality without the necessary consultation and approval by the general assembly.

At a press conference on Monday, October 21, 2024, the local assembly members said that Divine Bosson is fond of making decisions by himself, thus abusing his office as the leader of the municipality.

Mawunyo Agbe said the recent inaction by the MCE was when he (Divine Bosson) awarded the construction of a fence wall around a newly constructed assembly office complex near the old complex without consulting them (the assembly members).

He explained that the construction of a fence wall is not part of the assembly's mid-year budget, however, they do not know the source of funding and the contractor behind the work. "In my hand is the mid-year budget of 2024 this mid-year budget came to the floor of the house three weeks ago, in this budget we approved projects that we are all aware of at the moment.

...As we speak there is a project that is ongoing at the municipality called the fencing of the new assembly complex, my colleague journalist there is no way in this budget that it was stated that they should fence this municipality or this complex."

He added, "We have about nine projects and this project is not one of the projects so what is ongoing is extremely illegal we have not approved this at the general assembly, we have not approved it yet they are doing construction, what is the source of funding?, we don't know the contractor behind this project". Mawunyo Agbe quizzed "We are in a mess we are under a leadership that is not producing any good thing for this municipality".

Another assembly member, Charles Legbedze of the Fiave electoral area raised concerns over the quality of work. "Fencing to take place within 48 hours? It's even less than that. Saturday we were here, and we realized that they were doing an excavation. And within two days, excavation was done, concrete infestation was done, and laying was done. Where are you going? In the light of construction ethics, this thing doesn't happen. We don't accept it, because if there should be a heavy wind, now everything will collapse".

Assemblymember for the Bosotoe electoral area, Sefadzi Agama on his part talked about value for money and corruption.

"We stated in the minute of the last meeting that anybody that will engage in any of these contracts within this period (last quarter of the year) will amount to irregularity and this is one of the irregularities, so if you go to the assembly account and take any money for this then you are doing the wrong thing," he said.

Recently, the Ho Municipal Assembly members petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to probe the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Digital City Solution (DCS), collectors of property rates in the municipality over irregularities.

The presiding member, Mawunyo Agbe said their actions are to ensure accountability and improve on fair development in the Ho Municipality.