Members of the Wa East District Assembly have expressed disappointment at what they describe as the lackadaisical attitude of the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Ameen Salifu, towards the payment of their ex-gratia.
Some of the aggrieved members who stormed the Ghana News Agency’s Regional Office in Wa on Monday, said since the dissolution of the Wa East District Assembly on November 15, 2010, not a pesewa had been paid them and that there were no signs that the 700 Ghana Cedis agreed upon by the members would be paid now.
Said one Assemblyman, “As at now nothing has been paid to us and we still do not know when the Assembly would be able to pay us.“Mr. Salifu keeps on telling us that it would take the Assembly a year or more to mobilise money to be able to pay us because revenue generated internally was inadequate”.
This assertion by the DCE, the assembly members said, could not be true because as at July last year, the assembly was able to collect 122,214.30 Ghana Cedis representing 123.48 per cent of the estimated revenue of 98,973.50 set for the year.They accused Mr. Salifu of using the money to pay for fuel bills and other commitments to the neglect of taking care of the welfare of the members who had worked hard to mobilise enough money for the assembly.
The assembly members said since the appointment of Mr. Salifu as District Chief Executive, 200 million Ghana Cedis was approved by the assembly for the innovation of the DCE’s bungalow to make it more habitable for him to stay but since then he had refused to stay at Funsi, the District capital, and rather chose to be commuting from Wa to Funsi on daily basis to transact official duties.
This practice, they said, had overburdened the finances of the assembly due to the payment of huge fuel bills and high maintenance cost of his official vehicle, thereby depleting the coffers of the assembly and also undermining the revenue mobilisation efforts of assembly members.