Akufo-Addo’s US$1m per constituency is complete 'sakawa' – Mahama jabs

Flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has said the Nana Akufo-Addo government’s $1 million per constituency policy is a complete failure.

“It’s been a total flop,” he said.

According to him, in one constituency he visited, all the government can show for its ambitious project is four public toilets – and even the construction of these toilet facilities have not completed.

“These four uncompleted toilet facilities are their One Million Per Constituency project…there are no other projects anywhere. The point even is, for those projects, the district assemblies use to do them…the district assemblies were building their own toilets, building their schools, their clinics and so on.

“But you have reduced District Assemblies Common Fund from 7.5% to 5% of GDP and that extra money you are putting it into the development authorities and then you are saying I am building toilets for you under $1 million per constituency policy. This is complete sakawa,” he said.

The former President and NDC Presidential candidate for the upcoming polls on December 7, made the comments on a current affairs programme that aired on Accra-based Asempa FM.

The One Million Dollar per Constituency is a policy by the government under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP).

Under IPEP, each of the 275 constituencies is allocated the equivalence of US$1 million annually to be invested in infrastructure development initiatives of their choice, managed and implemented by the three development authorities (Northern Development Authority, Middle Belt Development Authority and Coastal Development Authority), under the office of the president, supervised by the Minister responsible for Special Development Initiatives.

The infrastructure projects to be implemented will support and complement other government infrastructure projects.

Since 2017, there have been budgetary allocations for every constituency in the country.

However, due to the time it took to establish the three development authorities, the one million dollar per constituency has been temporarily administered through the Minister for Special Development Initiatives.

The three development authorities have since been established by an Act of Parliament, and, fully operational, therefore, the government in 2019 said it has issued commencement letters to cover the full amount of cedi equivalence of 1 million US dollars to all three Development Authorities to commence the implementation of constituency specific infrastructure needs.