Akosombo Dam spillage: Use Contingency Fund to provide support for affected persons – Ablakwa

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu in the Volta Region, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, is calling on the government to utilize the Contingency Fund to provide relief to people affected by the spillage of the Akosombo Dam.

Ablakwa, in an Eyewitness News interview with Selorm Adonoo on Citi FM, intimated that the Contingency Fund was purposely created in anticipation of disasters, such as the resultant destruction caused by the Akosombo Dam’s spillage hence the government should, therefore, not hesitate to use the Fund to provide the necessary relief for the affected people.

“There is a reason why, in every budget anywhere in the world, there is a line item called the contingency fund. For the current budget we are operating, we approved a contingency fund of GH¢600 million in the budget. The question I ask is, where is all that money? This is a clear case of emergency for which the Contingency Fund qualifies to be used, and so where is the GH¢600 million?”

He also bemoaned the inhumane conditions under which the affected people are living and highlighted that there is no need to wait for another budget cycle to include a relief package for the affected people when there is a fund that can readily be used.

“We don’t need to wait for the next budget cycle. I was in the House when we approved the 2023 budget in November, and we put as much as GH¢600 million in the Contingency Fund. It is for things like these.

“People are collapsing on a daily basis, and they are living under inhumane conditions. That is what we use the Contingency Fund for, so we don’t wait for another budget cycle. Because what it means is that my people should forget it because the budget will be approved in late December, and spending can start in January 2024. So what it means is my people will be living in classrooms under these inhumane conditions.”