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The Coalition of Civil Society Organizations in the Savannah Accelerated Development (SADA) Zone, has said the funding gap has resulted in the failure to bridge the savannah zone and the rest of the country.
     
The SADA zone CSOs, made the observation during a Press Conference in Bolgatanga.

A statement read by its spokesperson, Mr Melton Aberinga, expressed displeasure that the present government has not made a single budgetary allocation to SADA.

The CSOs said starving SADA of resources was not only retrogressive and a betrayal of the trust of Ghanaians, but a threat to the democratic governance since  poverty and inequality are underlying currents for social disagreements and chaos.

Whilst applauding government for restructuring SADA, the CSOs said there was the need for government to release and disburse some funds to SADA in the 2016 supplementary Budget Statement being prepared.

“We are calling on government to demonstrate practical commitment to its own words by ensuring that at least GHC 200 million is allocated and disbursed to SADA.”

The CSOs reminded Ghanaians that the annual budget allocations to SADA and introducing levies on all non-petroleum imports to fund SADA are legal requirements under Section 18 of the SADA Act of 2010, Act 805 and stressed the need for government to comply by the act for SADA to run efficiently.

Whilst also calling on the Parliamentarians to immediately pass a legislative Instrument to operationalise the SADA Law, the CSOs entreated the new Board and Management of SADA to take bold steps to retrieve all funds that were misappropriated and mismanaged by the past leadership.