Former Deputy Energy Minister, John Jinapor, has sounded the knell on the disappearance of money that the Akufo-Addo government allocated to the fund set up to develop inner city slums, mainly called Zongos.
Speaking at the NDC’s policy dialogue on the Energy Sector today, he pointed out that out of millions that the government allocated to the Zongo Development Fund, the paper trail shows that only Ghc7million has been spent on the Zongos.
“So the overall 2000 so-called Zongo communities that they [government] say we have in Ghana only ¢7 million has been used the rest has gone into ‘chop-chop.
“So if you drive through the Zongo today, you won’t see anything different. They just go and repair somebody’s one-sitter toilet and Mustapha Abdul-Hamid [Zongo Minister] is all over with the media inspecting one toilet,” John Jinapor said.
It would be recalled that Parliament passed the Zongo Development Fund Act 964 in 2017 to, among other functions, invest in basic services and strategic infrastructure in Zongo communities, support local businesses in such communities and provide social protection for the poor and vulnerable in those communities.
In 2018, the Fund received Ghc150 million for the purpose of the fund but since its establishment, not much improvement have been seen in Zongo life.
According Mr. Jinapor today, this is because the fund was aonly a fascade for corruption.
“I have done an analysis of tracking 2017, 2018 and 2019 and if you check how much they spent on capital expenditure, in 2017 it was zero, 2018 was zero, 2019 was GH₵7 million.
“So over the past three years that is what they [Akufo-Addo led government] have spent on infrastructure to lift the people of the Zongo out of poverty,” he said