President Nana Akufo-Addo has been touting some of the achievements his government has chalked under his two and half year leadership, saying he is committed to laying a solid foundation for the future of the country.
According to him, the Mahama administration did very little to change the structure of the country’s economy for development necessitating structural reforms.
President Akufo-Addo was speaking at the Bolgatanga Senior High School in the Upper East Region as part of his working visit to the region.
“We are laying the social infrastructure and we are managing the economy in such a way that we can get sustained growth and development in the country.”
“We have enhanced the governance structures of our country. The new regions that have been created are going to enable governments to get closer to the people. So at all fronts, we are laying the foundation for the future growth and development of our nation.”
President Akufo-Addo began a six-day tour of the Northern and Upper Regions of Ghana today.
At every main stop on the tour, he is expected to commission completed projects, inspect work in progress and cut the sod for new projects across the three regions.
His tour begun at Winkogo in Talensi in the Upper East where he interacted with students and tutors of Bolgatanga Senior High School.
This is to be followed by a move to Binaba to take part in a durbar of chiefs and people of the area.
He will also pay a courtesy call on the Bawku Naba and meet with Mamprusi elders in Bawku.
The President will climax activities on his first day of the tour with a call on the Pusiga chief, followed by an inspection of ongoing works on the Kulungugu Bridge.
Sekyere East’s culpability
Daily Graphic on Tuesday reported that, in the Sekyere East District in the Ashanti Region, for instance, documents available to the newspaper showed that over GH¢141,000 had been lost through padding of enrolment figures and other manipulations of data.
Below are excerpts of the Daily Graphic’s report
Findings of preliminary investigations, conducted by state agencies such as the National Security and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) in collaboration with the GSFP Secretariat, established some infractions in seven schools in the Sekyere East District.”
Portions of the report made available to the paper indicated that Ntunkumso Presbyterian Primary, which was a single school with an enrolment of 385 and one caterer as of the third term of 2017/18 academic year, had been split into three with the enrolment figure repeated thrice in the payment file.
It was also discovered at the Ntunkumso Roman Catholic Primary that although the school had 172 pupils for the period under review, the caterer was paid for 380 pupils.
“The caterer confirmed that in the second term of 2017/18 academic year, she received payment for 380 pupils instead of 172,” the report indicated.
At the Senchi Methodist Primary School, it was found that the school, which runs a single stream with a population of 442 and one caterer, was duplicated in the payment file as two schools with two caterers.
The same illegality was discovered at Seniagya D/A Primary where the single stream school had been captured in the payment file as two schools and the enrolment figure inflated from 514 to 792.
“At Feyiase D/A Primary, the headmaster told the team that conducted preliminary investigations that he was new and, therefore, would not be able to furnish the team with third-term enrolment for the previous year,” the report added.
The paper gathered that the state agencies were carrying out detailed investigations to bring the perpetrators to book.
