Intense pressure is mounting on the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Alhaji Habibu Dawuda, and Municipal Coordinating Director (MCD), Mrs. Liousa Benon, of Wenchi Municipality respectively to immediately resign honourably from their posts else they would face a court action, Today has gathered.
Today learnt that among those who are impressing upon the President to remove both the MCE and the MCD from office are the Presiding Member (PM) of the Assembly, Hon. Samuel Mensah, and Assembly Members of the various electoral areas of Wenchi Municipality.
They have accused both Alhaji Dawuda and Mrs. Benon of abusing their offices and also milking confers of the Assembly to enrich themselves.
The PM and Assembly members are seething with anger over what they have described as “deliberate attempts by Mr. Dawuda and Mrs. Benon to boycott” the Assembly meeting on Thursday, June 30, 2016.
That development, Today learnt has stoked fire in the Wenchi Municipality.
The meeting which was chaired by Hon. Mensah was held ostensibly for the MCE and the MCD to come and explain to the House how they jointly managed to approve and certified payment of a whopping GHC 65,000.00 to two consulting firms-Sonamia Consults and Kavinang Consults- without any work done.
Today’s investigations into the saga have revealed that the attitude of Mr. Dawuda and Mrs. Benon to refuse to show up at the meeting has angered Hon. Mensah and the Assembly Members.
That development, Today uncovered, prompted the obviously aggrieved PM and the Assembly members to call on President John Dramani Mahama to immediately relieve the MCE and the MCD from their duty posts for breaching the Local Government Law as well as embezzling fund from the coffers of the Assembly without justification.
Speaking in an interview with Today shortly after the meeting, Mr. Mensah expressed disquiet over the attitudes of the two top officers of the Assembly to boycott the meeting which they were summoned to explain the circumstances under which they paid GHC 65,000.00 to the Sonamia Consults and Kavinang Consults which were owned by one Alhassan Baba Yurus and in subsequent the reasons for taking such action.
According to Mr. Mensah, during the first session of the Second Ordinary Meeting of the seventh Assembly held on Thursday, June 23, 2016, the Assembly members tendered in the payment document to indicate that the MCE in consultation with the MCD and Municipal Chief Engineer approved and certified the payment of GH¢15,000 to Sonamia Consults and GH¢ 45,000 to Kavinang Consults amounting to GH¢65,000 without recourse to the Local Government Law.
But, according to him, no programme of such nature was organised to justify such an approved budget by the MCE and the MCD.
The PM who doubles as the manager in charge of Wenchi branch of GN Bank described the payment of GHC65,000.00 made by Mr. Dawuda and Mrs. Benon to Sonamia Consults and Kavinang Consults as “dubious and unlawful,” stating that the action of the two officials amounted to causing financial loss to the state.
The worrying situation, according to Mr. Mensah, has compelled the House to adjourn the meeting to Thursday, June 30, 2016 for the MCE and MCD to come and explain further to the house circumstances under which the money was taken and reasons for that action.
Surprisingly, the PM told Today that the MCE and the MD have refused to turn up to the meeting without any explanation of their absence.
He stated that the two also managed to use their executive positions to convince some Assembly members and the twelve (12) government appointees of the Assembly who are loyalists to the ruling National Democratic Congress NDC to boycott the said meeting for which they also complied.
“Look before we, the seventeen (17) executives members of the Assembly who were present to start the meeting, l being the Chairman of the Wenchi Municipal Assembly personally made several telephone calls inviting the MCE and the MCD to come and participate in the meeting but they refused to come,” Mr. Mensah revealed.
Mr. Mensah, in an angry tone, served notice that he will be writing to the authorities of the Institute of Local Government Council and Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to institute punitive action against the MCE and MCD for violating the Local Government Law.
He could not fathom why the two top officers of WMA would boycott the constitutional mandatory meeting without any apparent reasons, stressing that “this action of Mr. Dawuda and Mrs. Benon was against ‘our local government law and l will use legal means to deal with them.’”
The PM also hinted plans to punish both the MCE and the MCD including all the unit committee members and government appointees in the Assembly who participated in the capacity building workshop organised by the embattled MCE and MCD, ostensibly to cover up their financial malfeasance.
He pointed out that the two officials violated the Local Government Law to organise such “unlawful” programme to cover up the payment of GHC65,000 they (the MCE and the MCD) made to the two consulting firms.
To this end, Mr. Mensah repeated his call for the dismissal of Mr. Dawuda and Mrs. Benon, stressing that the two have not managed the Assembly purse well over the years.
According to him, there are certain decisions that Mr. Dawuda and Mrs. Benon have taken that have worked against the interest of the people in the Wenchi Municipality.
When contacted by Today at 10:26 a.m., on Monday, Juky 05, 2016 the MCE confirmed that he did not turn up at the meeting and asked this reporter to call him at 1:00 p.m., to explain further on the matter.
“Please call me at one o’clock because l am currently at the scene of the road accident at Wenchi so l cannot have enough time to speak to you on the issue,” the MCE told Today.
However, when Today called him via telephone around 1:56 p.m., his telephone was off.
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