Berekum Youth Drag MCE To EOCO

Berekum youth want accountability from assembly authorities

A YOUTH group calling itself “Berekum Youth for Accountability and Development” in the Brong Ahafo Region has once again challenged and rejected an amount quoted by municipal authorities as the money used to renovate the residence of the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE).

According to the youth group, the amount is too ‘outrageous’, for which reason they are calling on the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) to investigate the authenticity of the said amount.

At a press conference at Berekum to highlight their concerns, members of the youth group in the municipality said the GH¢124,579.50 quoted by the authorities was too high since by their investigations, parching of roof leakages was the only work done on the residence.

They said the Berekum Municipality has many pressing needs that need immediate attention such as schools under trees, lack of potable water, mounting refuse dumps and unmotorable roads that money must be expended on rather than using such a whopping amount to renovate MCE’s residence.  They asserted that the situation was unimaginable because almost every MCE that is appointed to the municipality would want the same residence to be renovated whilst the rest of them continue to wallow in poverty.

Led by their chairman, Nana Yaw Adusei, the youth said they had already petitioned the office of the special prosecutor, the presidency and the ministry of local government and rural development to investigate the alleged financial malfeasance that had engulfed the Berekum Assembly, thereby making the municipality the least developed as compared to other municipalities in the region.

They pointed out that they were further opposed to a decision by the assembly to auction ‘earth moving machines’ the assembly bought from the district assembly common fund from the ministry of local government and rural development of which moneys are still being deducted from source.

Holding paper cuttings with inscriptions such as, ‘No Auctioning of Assembly Vehicles’, ‘We Need Accountability’, ‘No More Schools Under Trees’, and ‘Berekum is Bigger than any MCE’, the youth vowed to demonstrate vehemently against the assembly if the authorities attempted to sell the vehicles. Therefore, they called on all relevant bodies including the presidency to investigate how moneys released to the assembly since 2013 had been used. They strongly insisted that both past and present MCEs should be investigated.

Responding to the allegations, the MCE for the area, Kofi Adjei, said budget for renovation of the MCE’s residence was done by the assembly in 2016 and implemented in 2017 long before he took over as MCE; hence he was prepared for any kind of investigations.

With regard to the auctioning of the vehicles, he stated that the assembly had recommended three ways to deal with the abandoned vehicles such as finding funds to repair them, going into public private partnership with individuals to repair them and using or auctioning them but not to themselves, saying “as at now, we haven’t decided on which of the three committee recommendations to use”.

He agreed that the assembly had not finished paying for the machines yet. He welcomed forensic audit of the assembly activities.

danielyaodayee@yahooo.com

FROM Daniel Y Dayee, Berekum

 

 

 

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