Ranking Member on the Local Government Committee, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has called for transparency and accountability from the government regarding the District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP).
In an interview on Joy FM’s Newsnite, Mr Vanderpuye pointed out that a similar initiative was undertaken during the John Mahama administration in 2016, where the same machines were acquired.
“Those machines were taken over in 2017 by the Nana Addo-Bawumia government. As we are talking today, we don’t know where the machines are. They’ve not been accounted for, we have asked several times in Parliament for accountability but nothing has happened,” he stated on Wednesday, July 31.
His comment follows the President on Wednesday morning commissioning hundreds of earth-moving equipment to fix bad roads across the country.
Meanwhile, Minority in Parliament has submitted a Right to Information (RTI) request to the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) regarding the recently launched DRIP.
The request, signed by Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga, seeks details on the specifications and payment schedule of the equipment designated for DRIP, total payments made for the equipment, and the overall cost of the programme.
According to the lawmaker, “What we [Minority] are asking for is all in the same interest – transparency and accountability.”
He also noted that the MPs often face the public’s frustration and that Assemblies sometimes rely on a share of the MP’s common fund to execute their programs and activities hence a need for the MPs to be included in DRIPs management committees.
The Minority is calling for inclusion and proper oversight in the handling of the DRIP initiative to ensure that public resources are managed responsibly and transparently.
Source: myjoyonline.com
