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Tamale, Ghana – The 2017 Auditor-General’s Report has found the Member of Parliament for the Nandom Constituency, Ambrose Derry and his Aide Patrick Nakpenaa complicit of financial malfeasance.
According to page 53 of the 74 paged document titled “Report of the Auditor-General on the management and utilisation of District Assemblies’ Common Fund and other statutory funds for the year ended 31 December 2017”, an amount of Gh₵95,392.00 was paid to Patrick Nakpenaa, meant for payment of fees of needy students in the district.
The District Finance Officer, the report indicated, failed in his responsibility to ensure full accountability for the monies released to the Special Assistant of Mr. Derry.
The report recommended that, the amount of Gh₵95,392.00 be “converted into personal advance accounts and recovered from the imprest holders in line with Regulation 288 of the FAR (Financial Administration Regulation).
“We further recommended recovery of the Gh₵95,392.00 from the MP’s Special Assistant or in default, from the Hon. Member of Parliament of Nandom”, the report stated.
Also, a statement issued by Concerned Youth of Nandom, doubted the money was actually used to pay fees of students because the AG’s report did not capture that. “….This is therefore enough a justification that the money was shared to some key members in the party instead of using it to develop the constituency which is a clear case of criminal act as indicated in the auditor general’s report”, statement said.
The group demanded that, the list of beneficiary students be disclosed indicating the amount each student took from. “We are by this release once again, demanding the list of all those purported students who are beneficiaries of the common fund. We also want to know the amounts, the dates of applications, the dates of disbursement and schools of beneficiaries”.
Below is the state by the Concerned Youth of Nandom
CONCERN YOUTH OF NANDOM SCANDALIZED WITH Ghc95, 392.00 UNACCOUNTED FOR IN THE AUDITOR’S GENERAL REPORT IN THE DISTRICT
The aforementioned group on 22nd March, 2018 issued a press release demanding accountability from their MP Hon. Ambrose Dery after a statement was issued by office indicating that he uses his personal resources to finance developmental projects more especially the drilling of boreholes in the constituency.
The release of the Auditor General’s report has vindicated the above youth group on the grounds that a whooping sum of Ghc95, 392.00 was given to the special assistant to the MP, honourable Ambrose Sorry unaccounted for.
The group is again demanding accountability from the office of the MP, what this amount has been used for. Some aides of the MP in an attempt to respond to our earlier release told us that the said amount was used to pay school fees of some students in the various tertiary institutions.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t back their claims with evidence albeit we demanded the list of those students. In any case, if indeed the money was used to pay schools the auditors report would have captured that in their report. This is therefore enough a justification that the money was shared to some key members in the party instead of using it to develop the constituency which is a clear case of criminal act as indicated in the auditor general’s report.
We are by this release once again, demanding the list of all those purported students who are beneficiaries of the common fund. We also want to know the amounts, the dates of applications, the dates of disbursement and schools of beneficiaries.
Also, it will in the interest of constituents to know how that whopping amount from the MP common fund is unaccounted for. Should we conclude that the dealings of the the Assembly isn’t transparent and accountable?
Even though we believe the auditor general will take steps to ensure that such monies “diverted” into wrongful hands would possibly be retrieved, we are very much disappointed with that magnitude of misappropriation and unaccountability within the local government structure.
We wish to call on the special prosecutor to further investigate these fraudulent individuals and prosecute them to serve as deterrent to promote probity, transparency and accountability within the operation of the District Assembly and for that matter the use of the MP common fund.
Nandom constituency is a new one and we ought not to have been put to this wanton embarrassment published by the national auditor’s report.
In conclusion, we are reiterating that the Hon. MP account to us with immediate effect to clear the air concerning the above questions raised.
Spokesperson
Joshua Dedee
0502477585.
Member
Derbie Raphael
0240371356.
By Savannahnewsonline.com/Philip Liebs
