District Chief Executive (DCE) for Amenfi Central in the Western Region, Mr. Peter Kwakye Ackah, will be facing the wrath of residents of his district and possibly, sanctions from government if he is unable to establish the whereabouts of several thousands of Ghana cedis he collected from residents for an electricity project.
Mr. Ackah is alleged to have collected GHC 40.00 per resident of Manso Amenfi, the district capital, and its neighbouring communities in February this year with the intention of expanding electricity to those communities.
Interestingly, the said electricity expansion project forms part of the government-sponsored Self Help Electrification Project (SHEP) which is being spearheaded by the Ministry of Power in collaboration with the Energy Commission and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and it is supposed to be free, The New Crusading Guide has gathered.
“We have made checks at the district ECG office in Asankragwa; We’ve also checked at the ministry of power and the energy commission and we are told that the SHEP programme is supposed to be free so we see no reason why the DCE will collect monies for this purpose”, Alex Emmanuel Nti, An Assembly Member who is spearheading the probe into the DCE’s actions, told The New Crusading Guide in Takoradi.
He said concerned residents of the district have petitioned the government on the matter.
“We’ve sent copies of the petition to the Office of the President, the Ministry of Power, Energy Commission, Bureau of National Investigations, ECG and the police”, he said.
Mr. Ackah is reported to have later explained that although the SHED program was free, the monies collected was meant to “cushion the contractor” to do a good job.
But, Nti disputes this claim stating that such explanation did not suffice.
According to him, the receipts issued to residents for the payment of the said amount did not bear the name or logo of any organization which meant that the monies was going into the pockets of the DCE and his three-member committee which was arbitrarily set up to over-see the collection of the monies.
“They only used pen to write “ECG” at the top of the receipts but as I told you earlier, ECG has denied knowledge of any such collection of monies”, he stressed.
He alleged that persons who even delayed in the payment were charged additional GHC 20 cedis as penalty and no receipts were issued for that.
Nti therefore implored government to step in immediately and investigate the DCE’s actions.
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