The Member of Parliament for Kwahu Afram Plains South Eric Osei Owusu has described as deceptive the “One Million Dollars per Constituency “policy by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) saying nothing is happening on the ground.
The MP is therefore demanding from government detail publication of projects claim to have been executed with the ‘One million dollars per Constituency’ by the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives to enable transparency and accountability.
The Minority in Parliament in July this year said, per the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives’ data submitted to Parliament in the 2020 Budget Statement, the total cost of capital expenditure projects undertaken so far under the one million dollars per constituency promise from 2017 – 2019 is a paltry GH¢462,979,103, equivalent to just US$81 million.
According to the Minority, the amount spent so far represents just a meager 9.8 percent of the total of US$825 million that the government was supposed to have released by now in fulfillment of its promise to give every constituency one million dollars every year.
“One Million Dollars per Constituency” yearly was a major campaign promise by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2016 aim to solve the peculiar infrastructural needs of all 275 Constituencies in the country.
In an interview with mybrytfmonline.com at the sidelines of the Second General Assembly Meeting of the First Session of the Third Assembly of Kwahu Afram Plains South District on Tuesday, the MP for Afram Plains South Eric Osei Owusu chided the NPP government for the hook, line, and sinker political promise.
The comment by the MP follows a demand by some Assembly Members in the area for proper disclosure of projects funded by the “1million dollars per Constituency”.
“If you put all together 1million dollars a year will give you an average of Ghc6 million or Ghc5.5million cedis so in four years we should be in the region perhaps 24 million or 23 million cedis but if we are to go by what they have mentioned as the projects they have used the money for I don’t think that it is anything to write home about”
He added “Whatever project that they are using the money for at least they should make it known to us through either Parliament or Assembly but it doesn’t seem to be the case which is quite shocking,” the MP said.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Obed Ansah
