20th August 2019
Greetings to the good people of Berekum.
Berekum Youth for Accountability and Development wishes to draw the attention of the entire citizenry of Berekum to some current and pressing issues in the Berekum Municipality.
Berekum Youth for Accountability and Development as stakeholders in this municipality follow all contracts and projects designated and allocated to Berekum. It is for this reason why we have for some time followed the pavement project of the Thursday market. The association has over the past few weeks seek information from parties believed to be associated with the ongoing project.
In our quest to find information, we wrote a letter to the Member of Parliament and copied relevant offices in the Municipality. To our surprise, the NPP chairman, Mr Kwaku Kankam, responded to a letter addressed to the MP through a telephone call that they can not respond to our letter on the said contract and for that matter, we can find answers to our questions from Accra where the contract was awarded to the MP. On the 30th July 2019, an entourage was sent to the Ministry of Development and Special Initiative for fact-finding. The following are the information gathered from the Ministry;
That a sum of GHC 500,000 (5 billion old cedis ) has been awarded to NPP MPs to undertake projects in their constituencies. In constituencies where the MP is not an NPP, the sum is awarded to the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies. That the said amount is for three (3) different projects in the constituency (Berekum East). That the three projects are;
(a) paving of Thursday market and curbs
(b) paving Boakye-Yiadom Market and one other project. That the contractor to undertake the projects is an astute contractor in this Republic called Grow-Vision.
That the consultant for the projects is a consultant from the ministry. That source of funding is from the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Development and Special Initiative.
OUR OBSERVATIONS
The association believes that it is a common practice to find a signpost indicating relevant information on public contracts and projects. Unfortunately, there is nothing like that after over two (2) months of work on the Thursday market project.
The association believes that the contractor on-site is different from the contractor named by the ministry. This is because the foreman on site could not tell the size (square meter) being paved on our visit to the site.
The association also believes that the three projects might not be undertaken because the sum quoted by Mr Kwaku Kankam, the NPP Chairman, in an interview with Berekumcity.com indicates that the paving of the Thursday market (alone )is GHC 500,000.
With regards to the MP's list of achievements and an interview granted by Mr Kwaku Kankam, the Berekum East NPP Chairman, to Berekumcity.com, the source of funding for the paving of Thursday market is under the 1 million USD per constituency. The association cannot understand why the MP and NPP Chairman have put the project under the 1 Million USD per constituency when indeed the source of funding as confirmed by the Ministry of Development and Special Initiative on our visit on 30th June 2019 is different from the 1 Million USD per constituency Projects.
CONCLUSION
We call on our MP, Dr Kwabena Twum Nuama, to come out with all the three projects under the GHC 500,000 and explain how much of the funds are allocated to each of the projects from the GHC 500,000.
We also entreat our MP to tell the good people of Berekum, when the other two (2) projects are starting.
Also, we call on our honourable MP to explain to the good people of Berekum why such huge projects do not have sign-posts to indicate relevant information on the projects.
We find it unfortunate that a letter addressed to the MP was responded to by the NPP party Chairman and for that matter, our elected MP could not give audience to us on projects under his watch.
We believe Berekum should not be run by party executives but elected and appointed officials. We urge the Traditional Council (Nananom), Berekum Municipal Assembly, All Media Houses and the entire citizenry to ensure that these projects are executed as expected to ensure value for money to bring the progressive development we all wish for.
We assure the good people of Berekum that Berekum Youth for Accountability and Development will continue to hold our leaders accountable and follow developmental projects in Berekum.
Thank you
Signed
P. Y Kyeremeh (Public Relation Officer)
