Ofori-Atta using capping policy to siphon monies from road fund – A. B. A. Fuseini

Alhassan Bashir Fuseini, Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu in the Northern Region has accused Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta of impeding the construction of roads in the country.

According to the lawmaker popularly referred to as A.B.A Fuseini, the policy known as capping which he claims was introduced by the Finance Minister allowed monies from

Read full articlestatutory funds to be repatriated to the Ministry.

In the case of the transport ministry, he alleged that some 1.2 billion Ghana cedis had in his words, been “siphoned” from the Road Fund back to the Finance Ministry.

Speaking on Pan African TV last week, a programme monitored by GhanaWeb, the MP said: “The finance minister is an obstacle and the killer policies that they (government) pursue and you see, you can make a pronouncement about the year of roads but if the money to implement it is not there, will it work?

“And that is exactly what happened, so part of it like I said is on the Finance Minister. Two, the finance minister is superintending over killer policies in the road sector. What is the killer policy, through the policy of capping.”

He explained further: “They have what they call capping [where] they take more than one-third of the resources from earmarked funds and statutory funds and the road fund is one of them….my understanding is that over the period, they have taken more than 1.2 billion Ghana cedis from the road fund and this is a fund that was instituted to pay contractors.”

He said the continued protestation from contractors who had done genuine work as far back as 2016 but are yet to be paid was a testament to the fact that monies were not available for the purpose.

Whiles underlying the importance of roads to national development, Fuseini tasked Ofori-Atta to revisit the capping policy to deploy earmarked funds for their intended tasks.

“So this obnoxious capping policy introduced by Ken Ofori-Atta to siphon funds from statutory funds and earmarked funds that are there is not helpful. It is a counterproductive, archaic, obsolete and most inappropriate mechanism government uses to siphon funds.

“That is impeding the work and I think they should take a second look at this capping thing,” he concluded.