Anti-corruption campaigner Vitus Azeem has said the embattled DCE of Asuogyaman Samuel Kwame Agyekum must be made to step aside to allow for investigations into allegations of contract inflation leveled against him.
“That’s normally the case because the documents, the staff are under the DCE and if there are some staff who want to appear before the investigative committee they would be afraid.
“There are some Assemblymen knowing the composition of the assembly, the fact that one-third of the assembly are made of people appointed by the president and so definitely the best thing is for him to step aside so that the investigations could be properly done,” the former boss of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) demanded in an interview with Starr News’ Ibrahim Alhassan.
The Asuogyaman District Assembly in the Eastern region is reeling under a massive price inflation scandal that has angered residents of the district.
Documents sighted by Starr News reveal prices of some equipment including computers recently purchased by the DCE were heavily inflated.
An HP LaserJet coloured printer which was purchased at GHC16, 000 by the Assembly, for instance, is sold on the market for GHC1, 850 with the same or similar specifications. Also, an HP desktop computer which was bought at GHC4, 000 per unit goes at GHC2, 500 on the IT market. The staggering price inflation runs through many of the purchases that were done by the DCE and his team.
Again the DCE and his Coordinating Director, according to the documents sighted by Starr News, spent a whopping amount of money on the renovation of their official residences
For instance, a gargantuan amount of GHC70, 000 was expended on the renovation of the District Coordinating Director’s residence in May this year.
EOCO which is investigating the matter has already questioned the DCE who insists there is no wrongdoing.
The huge expenditure infuriated members of the governing New Patriotic Party in the area who have called President Akufo-Addo to remove the DCE from office.
According to Mr Azeem, the DCE can only be removed after the investigations by EOCO and the report made available to President Akufo-Addo, the appointing authority.
“Once EOCO is investigating and the first thing is for them to come out with the report and then if the report finds him culpable that’s where the removal will come. But for the meantime the person should be made to step aside,” he said.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
