You are here: HomeNews2016 10 08Article 475897

Politics of Saturday, 8 October 2016

Source: Kwame Frimpong

Henry Quartey schools Ani-Agyei on how common fund is administered

The member of Parliament for Ayawaso Central constituency and the parliamentary candidate on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party Hon Henry Quartey took the NDC candidate Ani-Agyei to the cleanest when they encountered each other at the Ayawaso Central Parliamentary debate yesterday at the new town post office in the Aryeediki electoral area.

Before the debate, Ani-Agyei had made it as part of his campaign strategy to malign the good name of Hon Henry by telling the electorate that he Henry Quartey has misappropriated the district Assemblies common fund meant for the development of the entire constituency. But Henry Quartey used the opportunity to teach Ani-Agyei how the process works.

Hon Henry told the crowd including the NDC candidate that the common fund is governed by law. The Chief executive officer who is appointed by the President in this case John mahama is charge of the fund.

The common fund which is only a fraction of the nation's resources is not lodged in the personal account of the MP but rather there's an administrator at the Accra metropolitan Assembly who manages it.

When the MP identifies a project in his constituency, he'll first write a proposal to the AMA where the chief executive will scrutinise and either accept or reject. If it is accepted, the contract will be awarded and the cheque will be written in the name of the contractor or beneficiary.

However, since it is the MPs common fund, the cheque will be given to the MP to present it to the contractor or beneficiary. Under no circumstances is the cheque written in the MPs name or any amount given to the MP directly. So how can one say Henry Quartey has squandered the common fund.

Henry Quartey as MP has used his share of the common fund to pay school fees for a number of people in the constituency. He even sponsored a lady who works with the Ghana education service in the sub-metro who almost went blind to Nigeria for eye treatment.

This attracted a large applause from the audience and those who had been deceived by Ani-Agyei started revising their notes