Director of Corporate Affairs and Relationship Coordination for the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority, Mr. Danse Sam has said that any political party that does not take the SADA Master Plan into consideration will fail in their quest to transform the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone.
According to him, the SADA master plan is a well thought out plan with evidenced based information which has generated the needed information for investors for the transformation of the SADA zone and will be dangerous for any government to overlook it when they come to power.
“I will like to indicate that for SADA, any political party that comes to power and does not take the master plan into consideration will be a failure because we have used evidenced based information to generate the needed information that investors need to transform the zone.”
Mr. Danse Sam who was speaking at a three day forum organized by a Coalition of Civil Society Organizations in the SADA zone dubbed ‘National Forum On Transformation of Northern Savannah of Ghana’ noted that the raging perception is that SADA is about bridging the gap between the North and the South but mentioned that SADA is not there to bridge the gap but rather “for a total transformation to make the SADA zone better that the South.”
He however called on various stakeholder especially the political parties to wean SADA of politics but rather see it as a technocratic institution seeking to make the zone a better place adding that all efforts should be injected into the drive to make SADA a worthy institution.
Chief Fumes Over Failed SADA Budgetary Allocation
On his part, outgoing President of the Upper East Regional House of Chief, Naaba Segri Bewong although there is a law that enjoins parliament to disburse funds to the authority in order to keep it on its feet, that has not been the case hence the perception created in the minds of people that is a failure.
“The law enjoins parliament to disburse funds to SADA but that has not been the case. In 2015/2016 there was a meagre budget allocation to the authority so how can SADA work and all they go round saying is SADA has failed SADA has failed.”
He however revealed that there is a proposal on the table to get an annual budgetary allocation of about hundred million Ghana cedis to sustain SADA but added that if government had implemented some sections of the SADA act which was passed six years ago the authority could have delivered better.
“We are saying that an annual budgetary allocation of hundred million Ghana cedis should be made so that SADA can be sustained. The SADA act enjoins government to introduce levies on non-petroleum products to provide funds for SADA but that has not been implemented after six years of the passage of the law so how can we survive. So we are demanding that any government the people give their mandate to should implement this because it is in the act,” he said.
By: Offei-Akoto Ayeh/A1RADIOONLINE.COM/GHANA
