SADA is becoming an embarrassment; Northern elite philosophy will not help- Kwesi Pratt


The Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt has faulted the government for making Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) the preserve of only the northern elite.

He said that decision, in part, is to blame for the current challenges the Authority is facing.

SADA was set up in 2010 as an independent agency for coordinating a development agenda for the northern savannah ecological zone of Ghana – Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Region, and north of Brong-Ahafo and north of the Volta region.

The Agency has however come under severe scrutiny and criticism over the reported misappropriation of funds by management officials. Some have called for the total dissolution of SADA since according to them; it is not serving the sole purpose for which it was set up.

Following the revelation, President John Mahama ordered the termination of certain contracts under SADA in consultation with the Attorney General.

The contract terminations affected the guinea fowl rearing project and an afforestation and tree growing project.

President Mahama reconstituted the SADA board which will be headed by corporate lawyer and former Deputy Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mrs. Angelina Mornah Domakyaareh.

Kwesi Pratt speaking on the new board and woes of SADA on Alhaji and Alhaji on Radio Gold Saturday noted that revelations on SADA are too embarrassing and hoped that the new board change things for the better.

“I can only hope that the new SADA board will take cognisance of the happenings in  SADA and make a special effort to make SADA work because there are too many problems with SADA. SADA is becoming an embarrassment,” he said.

He explained that, “SADA was set up in response to the excruciating poverty in northern part of the Bono Ahafo region, northern part of the Volta region and the three northern regions.”

“Each government votes money for SADA’s work and the big men at SADA takes this money and put it into bank account in other to collect interest, it’s an insult to all of us, it’s a betrayal of trust. If it’s about putting money in bank accounts and getting interest, why didn’t government put the money in [a] bank account and collect interest?” Kwesi Pratt quizzed.

The stories about SADA, he said, are shocking and that change of the board may be one of the first steps to “making sure that something healthy happens at SADA”

He noted that alleviating poverty from the three Northern regions and some parts of the Volta and Bono Ahafo regions does not mean SADA should be the preserve of the Northern elite?

Kwesi Pratt further quizzed that, “Who says that people from Akim Swedru and the Volta region” cannot work to help alleviate poverty in the north? Turning SADA into a haven of the northern elite has not helped SADA in any way so we should see SADA as a national institution” which must not necessarily be controlled by people from the north.

It was his hope that the new board will turn things around for the board. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Ernest Dela Aglanu (Twitter: @delaXdela / Instagram: citizendela)

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