President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has vowed not to repeat mistakes committed by the former Mahama-led administration which mismanaged social intervention programmes such as the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).
Akufo-Addo made the remark when he was naming his ministerial appointees at the Flagstaff House on Thursday.
SADA, a five-year social intervention porgramme failed to produce the needed results because of mismanagement and corruption which saw SADA lose about GHc32 million.
This forced former President John Dramani Mahama to replace its chief executive as well as the board.
Nana Akufo-Addo at the Flagstaff House explained that, he has created a new Ministry – Ministry for Special Development Initiatives with the Member of Parliament for Awutu Senya East, Mavis Hawa Koomson as the nominee tasked with supervising and ensuring the success of some of his social intervention programmes.
“There has to be accountability, we cannot afford the repetition of what happened at SADA. That is not going to happen in Akufo-Addo’s time. And in order to make sure that there is an accountable figure for Parliament, myself and the general public can look to as to how these monies have been spent, to ensure that they have been spent in an intelligent and concerted manner, that’s why we need this ministry.”
Nana Akufo-Addo prior to his election, promised to establish the Zongo Development Authority, Coastal Development Authority and the Middle Belt development Authority, which he said will help champion development in the country.
He has also promised to dispense $1 million to each of the 275 constituencies to help boost development nationwide.
“The development authorities that we intend to set up – the coastal development authority, the middle belt development authority and the northern development authority are going to be the vehicles for dispensing this money,” he added.
The President has so far made 36 ministerial appointments, with seven of them going to work as ministers of state at the presidency.
This means the government will have 29 substantive ministers, heading 29 full-blown ministries.
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