A pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) group, the Truth Forum, says President John Mahama, has no legacy in the three Northern regions of Ghana except the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) scandal in which some National Democratic Congress (NDC) gurus allegedly stole huge amounts of money from state coffers.
Spokesperson of Truth Forum, Anthony Abayifa Karbo, who made this known at a press conference in Wa, Upper East region, indicated that “clearly, the President’s unwillingness to touch the SADA subject these days is an admission of his failure and the legacy he is leaving with regards to northern development and the many promises he made to the people of the North, especially in 2012 when he led the onslaught to tell northerners that with a northern president, the north would see the deserved commitment and attention for development.”
He said “perhaps the area where the President has shown a total lack of commitment to the issues of the North and SADA is with regards to retrieving the monies pilfered in the name of SADA.
In 2008, there was a general consensus nationally that the north with high poverty rate was underdeveloped as compared to other parts of the country.
NPP presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo had proposed the establishment of the Northern Development Programme in a bid to help alleviate the poverty in the North when elected as President of Ghana.
But the National Democratic Congress (NDC), led by the former President John Evans Atta Mills and John Mahama at the time, rubbished Nana Akufo-Addo’s idea which many described as noble.
The NDC later bought into the idea and eventually promised to set up a similar programme which led to the establishment of SADA.
However, Karbo, who is the NPP parliamentary candidate for Lawra, said “the SADA funds which were released to ostensibly help the Northern poor and uplift them from suffocating poverty was virtually pilfered into private accounts and pockets and into buildings and cars for the President, his friends and family while the ordinary man and woman of the North have been left poorer and more deprived.”
He said, “Indeed, ladies and gentlemen, the record is even worse when John Mahama government from 2012 is isolated, the record is even pathetic! Not only has the government of John Mahama per their own records allocated only GH¢40 million out of a promised GH¢400 million, they should have allocated per their own manifesto promise in 2008, but they have also supervised and led the wanton thievery of these resources which were allocated in the name of Northern development.”
According to Karbo, “What John Mahama and his NDC government have achieved is ensuring that cronies of the government enrich themselves obscenely in the name of Northern Development and the destruction of the Northern Brand and even environment. And there appears no end in sight to this legacy of shame and the nightmare the people of the North are seeing today.”
The Truth Forum spokesperson said that various audit reports had revealed “amazing levels and shameless schemes with which these resources were stolen by men close to the ‘Northern President’.”
Some officials of SADA were involved in corrupt deals, notably the use of over GH¢250,000 on unapproved and “wasteful” trips to Birmingham, Berlin and Istanbul.
“Then there was the payment of GH¢620,000 for the services of consultants. Indeed, the initial Audit Report put this amount at over GH¢1 million.”
“The four beneficiaries were named as Dr. Charles Jebuni, Chief Technical Advisor, who took a total of GH¢437,206.00 in a period of 22 months (GH¢19,873.00 monthly), Salifu Mahama, Engineer for Housing, who took a total of GH¢96,000.00 for 16 months (GH¢6,000.00 monthly) and Kennedy S. Mohammed, Resource Mobilization, who collected a total of GH¢75,000.00 for 10 months (GH¢7,500.00 monthly).
In the 2012 farming season, SADA accordingly supplied 714 bags of hybrid seeds to two service providers at a time the farming season was over. Because of this, SADA lost over GH¢320,000.
Mr Karbo argued that “the biggest of all these wastages was the sinking of GH¢48 million into Guinea Fowl Rearing and Tree Planting projects.”
Per the 2008 Manifesto promise of the NDC, the statement said, SADA should have had at least GH¢1 billion allocated to it in addition to other funds that was to be sourced from development partners and the private sector.
The 2012 Manifesto of the ruling government had indicated that GH¢260 million had been allocated to SADA by 2012 instead of a promised GH¢600 million
The 2013, 2014 Budget statements indicated that GH¢20 million was allocated to SADA per year while there was virtually no mention of SADA in the 2015 and 2016 budgets.
‘70% Target Missed’
That means that a total of GH¢300 million has been allocated to the SADA Programme as compared to a promised GH¢ 1 billion.
“This means that the NDC government has only delivered at most 30 percent of what it promised the people of the North but ladies and gentlemen, the critical question to ask is, how have even these meagre amounts compared to what was promised been utilized.”
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