The Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) has called on the Mills-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government to cause the refund of the 1.6 billion cedis given out to Mr. Stan Dogbe, a Communications Specialist working for the government, to the Consolidated Fund without delay.

The money was allegedly used by Mr. Dogbe to buy hampers and organize seminars, but he GCPP has stated that it will never allow this matter to be swept under the carpet unless this money has been restored to the public purse.

“We call for refund now!” GCPP has stated. In a press statement issued on Wednesday September 22 and signed by MR. Ali Adam, General Secretary of the GCPP, the party stated that in the last couple of weeks the country has also been saddled with labour discontent and agitation over wages, again, just last weekend, police Constable William Blankson (May he rest in Pace) lost his life in an encounter with armed robbers in Kumasi.

He was deployed to this risky assignment without the needed protective gears and the police explained that he was deployed without protective gear because there was no money to buy bullet proof vests.“There are many areas of national life where relatively small resources are needed to make a big difference and save lives. But the response of the NDC government has been, “There are no resources.’’ The GCPP stated.

The party explained that yet again, the government is unable to account properly for GH¢ 160,000 the equivalent of 1.6 billion cedis spent from the Ministry of Information.“The official explanation that the money was spent on the communication of the 2009 Budget Statement by journalists mostly through the Institute for Financial & Economic Journalists (IFEJ) has proven to be false. The IFEJ has come out officially and publicly with an emphatic denial that they ever received even a pesewa from the ministry or government for any such purpose,” GCPP stated.

The party said that as for other versions of the government explanation that the money was spent buying Christmas hampers for unidentified persons, the least said about it the better. “The Great Consolidated Popular Party identifies with the general anger of Ghanaians about this reckless expenditure. This government is becoming too eager to spend the nation’s resources on the wrong things while our development effort is starved of the needed resources,” the statement concluded.