Tamale Fund- Ibrahima denies embezzling fund

Accra (Greater Accra) 11 March '99

Alhaji A.Y.M.B Ibrahima, former Municipal Chief Executive of Tamale, on Thursday expressed shock and surprise at a newspaper report alleging that 120 million cedis has disappeared from the District Assembly Common Fund. The report said the money, meant for poverty alleviation in the Tamale municipality, has disappeared from the special account of the Municipal Assembly at the Agricultural Development Bank. It quoted a source at the assembly as saying the Common Fund and Poverty Alleviation files, as well as office equipment, could not be located, when the new Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Mohammed Alhassan, took office on March 1. In an interview in Accra, Alhaji Ibrahima said records of the disbursement of the fund are available. ''Records of the disbursement of the funds, including loan agreements between the Assembly and the beneficiaries, are all there and they indicate who took what amount and for what purpose''. Reacting to another aspect of the report that he had sought to verbally hand over to the new Municipal Chief Executive, Alhaji Ibrahima said: "the last thing I want is to engage in a newspaper trade-off with a man who has just taken over from me. "I know how hot that seat is. There are social, economic and development challenges in the municipality to be tackled. I would not want to have his attention diverted from these real issues". He said he is available to answer any queries about his stewardship but would like to do so not in the columns of newspapers but before the District Assembly whose members, he said, are aware of the procedures for the disbursement of funds under the Poverty Alleviation Programme.