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�The media fund was part of the budgetary allocation given to the ministry of information; the money cannot be shared to everybody in the media like tomatoes�the laptops are for capacity building,� opined Mr Kojo Twum Boafo, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB) and a member of the Government's Communication Machinery. Kojo Twum Boafo was reacting to the brouhaha over the disbursement of the media development fund which has become a topical issue within the media and government. Questions have been raised by media organisations about the whereabouts of GHc1 million Media Development Fund which was pledged by government in 2011. After weeks of enquiries about the whereabouts of the GH�1 million M edia Development Fund (MDF), which was allocated in the 2012 budget, it has now been revealed that the entire amount has been spent by the Ministry of Information and Media Relations to buy Rlg laptops for government Public Relation Officers (PROs), the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communication and some media groups. The key characters in the unfolding drama include the Ministry of Information, the Ghana Journalist Associations (GJA), Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) and the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA). Though Government has been consistent with its position on the fund stating that the monies have been set aside for the �development� of the Ghanaian media; the management of the fund is still unclear. The other key players are terribly confused as to who agreed that the laptops be purchased and who the recipients of the laptops are. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) which has been leading the campaign to locate the whereabouts of the Fund and how it is being expended has expressed surprise about what the GJA considered as a pressing need. The Minister of Information and Media Relations, Mahama Ayariga, answering questions on the issues on the floor of Parliament disclosed that leadership of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) and other stakeholders, met with government and requested for laptops; since it was one of their pressing needs. Contributing to a panel discussion on Wednesday�s edition of �Kokrokoo�, Kwamena Duncan, Central Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) alleged that the disbursement of the media fund was just an opportunity for the Mahama led administration to �create, loot and share�. But his assertion was strongly objected by Kojo Twum Boafo who described his remarks as an insult to President Mahama�s. �When I hear about capacity building�if you buy laptops and distribute to journalists, is it not capacity building?�Kabral Blay Amihere (chairman of NMC) wrote a letter asking that the media fund be given to the National Media Commission (NMC) through him. Kabral wrote a letter under the guise of the NMC that the money should be given to the commission which he superintends; so that it should be used to build whatever capacity for journalists. Does it mean that it was to create loot and share?� he queried. Whiles stoutly defending the decision to use the GHC1m to purchase laptops, he indicated that there was no way the Ministry of Information would have distributed GHC 1 million to every journalist in the country and that was why it decided to buy laptops. �Somebody will decide on what the money will be used for; and it was decided by the ministry to purchase laptops�or you wanted the money to be given to you (journalists) so that you can travel with it? Capacity building is the laptops; you connect it to the internet,� he told Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM.