NDC outlines projects $12m spent on botched Agyapa deal could’ve been used for

The controversy over the suspended “Agyapa” Gold Royalties deal may not go away anytime soon, as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken issue with the $12 million said to have been spent on the botched arrangement.

At a recent appearance before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, CEO of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, disclosed that the Agyapa royalties deal, which is currently in abeyance, has already cost the taxpayer some $12 million.

Addressing the media at a press conference earlier, the National Communication Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, argued that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government had occasioned a financial loss to the state by making these payments.

He stated that Ghanaians were taken aback by the government’s decision to spend a whopping $12 million on the abandoned Agyapa deal.

The NDC enumerated several critical and pressing national needs that the government could have addressed using the said amount, including payments for the treatment of kidney patients, some of whom died as a result of the recent closure of the Renal Dialysis Unit at Korle-Bu over the government’s indebtedness.

The party again argued that these payments come at a time when the government has failed to procure textbooks for basic schools, five years after introducing a new curriculum, while National Service Personnel have also not received their allowances for several months.

The NDC alleged that certain persons in the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government distributed the $12 million payments among themselves under the guise of the failed “Agyapa” royalties arrangement, at a time young people under the NABCO program have been sent home without any employment.

The party has therefore vowed to investigate and retrieve all payments made in the name of the collapsed Agyapa Royalties deal and other similar arrangements, should the NDC and John Mahama emerge victorious in the 2024 General Elections.

Below are excerpts from Sammy Gyamfi’s speech at the press conference:

• This money could have sufficed to pay the cost of several months of treatment for all kidney patients in Ghana, nineteen (19) of whom died painfully, following the shameful closure of the Renal Dialysis Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching hospital for several months last year, over government’s GHS4 million indebtedness.
• This colossal amount of money, could have been used to provide childhood vaccines to protect innocent babies from dying of childhood killer diseases due to shortage of essential vaccines.
• This USD$12 million which the country has lost to sheer corruption, could have procured textbooks for basic school children who have gone five years without curricular-based textbooks, after the introduction of a new curriculum.
• Ladies and gentlemen, USD$12 million could have paid the allowances of National Service Personnel in Ghana who have not been paid for four months now.
• Also, this huge amount of money, could have been used to create thousands of jobs for NABCO beneficiaries who have been sent home after they were promised permanent employment.
• Again, this colossal amount of money, could have been used to provide potable drinking water, or several CHPS compounds or schools for thousands of Ghanaians in deprived communities of the country.

 

 

 

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