The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has vowed to prosecute Mavis Hawa Koomson, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Awutu Senya East, over what it described, as failed policies implemented by the Ministry of Special Development Initiative (MSDI).
The NDC, claims these policies have resulted in significant financial losses to the state.
According to the NDC’s Deputy General Secretary, Mustapha Gbande, a future NDC government, will thoroughly investigate initiatives like the One-Village-One-Dam project and the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP), which were intended to provide communities with access to potable water and modernized toilet facilities.
These projects, spearheaded by the MSDI under Hawa Koomson’s leadership, in the view of the NDC have allegedly failed.
Gbande suggested that the ministry may have been used by the NPP as a conduit to divert state funds, and he emphasized the need to trace the financial losses linked to these projects, particularly the One-Village-One-Dam initiative.
In addition to the alleged financial mismanagement, Gbande stated that a future NDC government would also prosecute Hawa Koomson for acts of violence believed to have been orchestrated against NDC members in Kasoa.
He cited incidents such as the gunfire and motorbike attacks at the Steps to Christ registration centre in 2020 and the shooting on December 7, 2020, which injured three people, as matters that would be thoroughly investigated and addressed.
Recently, the Minority in Parliament, has accused the government of inflating the cost of the 307 ambulances procured in 2019.
The caucus contends that the ambulances were not supposed to exceed 25 million dollars at a unit cost of 80,000 dollars.
Addressing journalists, the Chairman of the Government Assurances Committee of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, demanded full accountability and prosecution of persons found culpable in the deal.
He referenced the Auditor General’s 2022 performance audit, which revealed the inflated procurement.
“The procurement of the 307 ambulances cost this country $54.3 million. The Auditor General has revealed if you go through the 2022 performance audit that that procurement itself is problematic. When you do the analysis, it was an inflated procurement because page 24 of the audit reveals that the unit price of the ambulance is $80,000 and yet we paid $54.3 million.
“$80,000 multiplied by 307, we should not have paid more than $25 million for this ambulance. And yet Ghana was made to pay a colossal, whopping $54.3 million as discovered on page two of the Auditor General’s report.”
He alleged that between 2020 and 2023 an amount of GH¢115 million had been paid to Service Ghana Auto Group Limited, which has one of its key directors being the in-law of President Akufo-Addo, Stephen Okoro, for maintenance of the ambulances under shady circumstances.
