Increase allocation to Zongo Dev Fund — Haruna Iddrisu

The Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, has accused the government of  failing  to honour its pledge of providing adequate seed money for the Zongo Development Fund (ZDF).

He said the allocation to the ZDF contained in the 2017 and 2018 budget statements was GH¢100 million, which fell short of the $50 million seed money promised by the government to support the operations of the ZDF.

Mr Iddrisu made the accusation last Sunday when he inaugurated an electrification project for the Dalinbila community in the Tamale South Constituency, where he represents the people in Parliament, bringing electricity coverage in the constituency to 99.5 per cent. This leaves one more community in the area to be connected to the national grid.

He spoke about the rural electrification project in the constituency, saying it was an initiative of the previous government which had been completed by the current government, saying that fulfilled his pledge to the constituents that no community under his watch would be without electricity.

Zongo Dev Fund

Mr Iddrisu stated: “The budgets for 2017 and 2018 for ZDF is GH¢100 million, so President Akufo-Addo, honour your word; if you say that you are setting up a fund, no seed money has been provided for the ZDF, neither was it provided for in the legislation.”

He mentioned that the ZDF Law was recently assented to by the President, and that “is welcome news but nothing to celebrate because the solution to the problems which affect the Zongos does not lie in the creation of new bureaucracies.”

The ZDF was a manifesto promise by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) during the 2016 electioneering, and a law to ensure its implementation was passed by Parliament, which was recently assented to by the President.

Special Prosecutor Act

Mr Iddrisu also spoke about the Special Prosecutor Act and the Office of the Special Prosecutor, saying “Legal fixes to dealing with economic criminalities such as corruption is always not an adequate mechanism, but arguably, it is welcome news that we want to have a Special Prosecutor to combat corruption because of its debilitating effects.”

He added, “The greatest threat to the success of the Special Prosecutor Act and the Office of the Special Prosecutor remains political bias, whether or not the person appointed to the office will exercise justice in a manner which is impartial, which is a requirement of law.”

He stated, “If it is used only as an instrument to check the past, it will become an instrument for witch-hunting, if it does not focus on the present issues, then it will fail as an impartial watchdog to combat corruption.”

He indicated that there would be issues in the past but essentially there were present issues as well which were credible candidates for special prosecution that the Special Prosecutor must be interested in, adding, “The Special Prosecutor must uphold a fundamental principle of law, which is equality of the law and natural justice.”

Mr Iddrisu pointed out, “The Special Prosecutor should not know only former functionaries of the National Democratic Congress’ government and not know present functionaries of this government, who may suffer infractions of the law.”