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Regional News of Sunday, 10 September 2006

Source: Public Agenda

Kumasi Residents Are Shocked

Residents in the Kumasi metropolis are demanding accountability from their Chief Executive and the entire assembly.

Many residents say they are shocked by some revelations bordering on the expenditure of the assembly.

They have thus questioned for instance why ¢500 million should be used to renovate the chief executive Madam Patricia Appiagyei’s official residence when in less than three years the former chief executive Maxwell Kofi Jumah used ¢1.2 billion to renovate the same premises.

Some residents have also raised questions over the purchase of a brand new official vehicle at ¢450million for the chief executive when a brand new land cruiser was recently acquired for Maxwell Kofi Jumah. Many people within the city Public Agenda interviewed complained about what they referred to as unplanned and arbitrary expenditure.

However, the Chairman of the Finance Committee and assemblyman for Anloga, Abdulai Gariba justified the need to purchase a new vehicle and also renovate her official bungalow. He explained that the land cruiser used by the former chief executive is in bad shape, hence the need to buy her a new vehicle.

But some residents are calling for a complete shake up of the assembly and the probing of the former KMA boss and some key officials.

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly continues to receive a lot of public condemnation over its expenditure. It was publicly criticized for using over ¢950 million for a decongestion exercise which was widely described as unsuccessful.

It also came under intense public criticism when ¢1.5 billion was used for a one day clean up exercise. A lawyer and a senior citizen in Kumasi, Mr. F.A Jantuah on a the radio called for an auditing of the accounts of KMA and blamed the system for the non performance of the assembly. On the same programme, a resident at Kwadaso, a suburb of Kumasi urged the whole city to demand answers from the authorities.