The Minister of State designate at the Finance Ministry, Dr. Amin Adam, says misuse of funds, allocated to deprived regions in the country to support development, is tantamount to murder.
Appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Tuesday, Dr. Adam, said anyone who would attempt to touch monies allocated to deprived regions would be doing the indigenes a great disservice.
“Mr. Chairman, the five regions in the north and the Central region are the most deprived in our country and various documents of government will prove this. Therefore, any pesewa allocated to support development in these areas that have not been spent well is tantamount to murder. Mr. Chairman, that is murder,” the Minister of State-designate asserted.
He said such funds allocated to the deprived regions help to “reduce malnutrition of children, provide education for children and generally improve the conditions of lives. And so to the extent that any resources whether under Kwame Nkrumah, former President John Dramani Mahama or under President Akufo-Addo, that is not spent well to improve the living conditions of the people, Mr. Chairman I think it’s problematic”.
The deprived regions include Upper East, Upper West, North East, Northern, Savannah and Central.
The then Mahama government rolled out some interventions to salvage the economic situation in the North by heavily investing in guinea fowl, tractors for the farmers amongst others but these policies failed.
Special Prosecutor drags NDA CEO, deputies to court over GH¢10.4m scandal
In a related development, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has charged Mr. Sumaila Abdul–Rahman, the Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Development Authority, and two of his deputies– Mr. Stephen Yir-eru Engmen and Mr. Patrick Seidu– as well as the Chief Executive of A&QS Consortium Limited, Mr. Andrew Kuundaari for conspiracy to directly or indirectly influence the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract.
Mr. Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, Mr. Patrick Seidu, and Mr. Andrew Kuundaari have been charged with a further count each of directly or indirectly influencing the procurement process to obtain an unfair advantage in the award of a procurement contract, while Mr. Stephen Yir-eru Engmen has been charged with a further two (2) counts of the same offence.
The two deputy CEOs of NDA, Patrick Seidu and Mr. Stephen Yir-eru Engmen were recently sacked by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.