News:
April 7, 2014
Efforts by the legislature to meticulously examine government agencies that entered into dubious contracts are hitting a snag due to government’s undue interference, Member of Parliament (MP) for Effutu, Alex Afenyo-Markin has implied.
Picking on the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) specifically, he averred that “government is not allowing Parliament to scrutinize the activities of SADA”.
The MP’s comments followed Joy News’ investigations, which uncovered alleged financial malfeasance of various degrees at SADA.
In the first of a series of investigations titled the Sad SADA Story, Manasseh Azure Awuni reports of a murky investment deal of GH¢74.5 million by the authority .
Reacting on the exposé, Afenyo-Markin, who is a member of the Parliament Finance Committee told Joy FM’s Top Story on Monday that the discovery does not come to him as a surprise.
“This explains why SADA could not supply the Finance Committee with any of the information requested,” he recalled.
He said even though SADA is executing “laudable” projects, he suggested companies that overly benefited from these projects are being “protected” by the government, which has provided them a leeway to escape accountability.
Such ignoble contracts have denied the people of the north their fair share of development, Afenyo-Markin stated.
He further revealed that issues such as that of SADA that need thorough scrutiny, have regrettably been reduced to partisanship.
As a Member of Parliament in the opposition, he said, his attempts to ensure that the nation gets value for money have been misconstrued as he “wanting to embarrass government”.
He is therefore prevailing on the Chairman of the Finance Committee to invite Chief Executive of SADA or the sector minister to appear before the Committee to be interrogated.