Members of the Ahanta West District Assembly in the Western Region have questioned why their District Chief Executive, Henrietta Mary Eyison, spent GHC22,200 rent accommodation whereas the Assembly has an official bungalow.
Her action, the assembly members say, is in breach of a decision taken at their General Assembly meeting to renovate the official bungalow for the DCE, which they say is in good shape and was occupied by Ms Eyison’s predecessors.
“The building is in good condition, it just needs a few touches. It was the same structure that our former DCEs used; Ekow Jones and Kwesi Biney, they have all used that place without complaining,” Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Assembly, Ebenezer Essien, said on Onua FM’s morning show Tuesday.
He said the decision to spend that much on a private accommodation for just a year was even more worrying considering the poor financial state of the Assembly.
Mr. Essien said there was agreement to renovate the official bungalow, though to the assembly members, it was in good condition, adding “I must say that if the structure was not good for her to use, the general assembly would have taken decision to put up a new structure for her and subsequent Chief Executives to use.
“It was at the executive committee meeting that the issue of the DCE’s accommodation was raised, and we subsequently sent it to the general assembly meeting for decision to be taken. We concluded that the official residence should be renovated for the new DCE” he said.
According to him, it came as a surprise only to discover three months later that DCE “on the blind side of the Assembly, rented an apartment to the tune of 22,200 Ghana cedis a year. She went against the assembly’s decision as well as the Rent Control Act”.
The assembly members, he claimed, have been infuriated by the DCE’s action and questioned whether she took into account the revenue level of the assembly before taking that decision to spend lavishly on her accommodation.
“We are worried as assembly because of our financial challenges. The Ahanta West Assembly is not like those endowed districts, we don’t have money that is why her decision got us questioning her,” the Committee chairman said.
Mr Essien said the action by the DCE goes against the President’s efforts at protecting the public purse
According to Mr Essien the action of the DCE was brought to the attention of the Assembly at one of its meetings at which “we were given official information by the District Finance Director. That the DCE went behind the assembly to rent an apartment, which the DCE herself has confirmed”.
Asked if there will be any sanction against the DCE, he responded, “Well, it is the President that appointed her, he must call her to order, but in the interim we are meeting on Thursday and this issue will come up for discussion”
Meanwhile, efforts to reach Ms. Eyison to comment on the issue have proved futile.
By Bright Dzakah|Onua 95.1FM|3news.com|Ghana