The Member of Parliament for Builsa South Constituency, Dr. Clement Apaak, has responded to attempts by the District Chief Executive of the area, Daniel Kwame Gariba, to educate the MP on the use of the MP’s common fund to sponsor needy but brilliant students in the area.
It could be recalled that the DCE, a few weeks ago, wrote to the MP, asking him to resort to the Assembly Committee on the use of the common fund, especially when offering students scholarships.
The letter, which was signed by the District Coordinating Director, Aminu Mohammed Baba, indicated that the MP always uses his party executives in the area (NDC constituency executives) to select students, and then uses his letterhead to direct the Assembly to disburse the Common Fund to such beneficiary students without fair representation.
But reacting to the claim, Dr. Apaak noted that the Assembly has neither the constitutional nor the legal capacity to decide the selection of students for support.
“The General Assembly has no constitutional nor legal capacity to purport to decide that the Assembly forms a committee to vet applicants with regards to my education support for students. The decision by the General Assembly about my education support and how student beneficiaries ought to be selected is void and of no consequence or effect. Consequently, I will be presenting a list of selected students based on the criteria I have used since 2017 to the Assembly.”
He added that “there are no such criteria stated in the guidelines for the utilisation of the District Assemblies Common Fund. The role of the Member of Parliament and the District Assembly is clearly stated with regards to the management Of their respective components of the District Assembly Common.”
“What law or act gives the General Assembly the authority to decide the criteria by which students to benefit from my education support are selected? My research and checks, including discussions with colleague Members of Parliament, the Minister for Local Government, as well as other experts with in-depth knowledge of our local government system and the guidelines governing the utilisation of the District Assemblies Common Fund, confirm that the General Assembly has no such powers,” he added.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Moses Apiah|Ghana
