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Dozens of media organization across the country have joined the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), to demand information on the whereabouts of the GH�1 million that was allocated in the 2012 budget as Media Development Fund (MDF). The media organization, majority of whom are based in districts where advertising and other sources of media revenue are literally absent, are calling on the government to honour its transparency and accountability obligations by letting Ghanaians, and the media community in particular, known the status of the fund. On September 9, 2011, then Vice President (and now President) John Mahama announced government�s plans to set up a Media Development Fund (MDF). The president made the announcement while addressing the 16th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) awards as the gust of honour. Following the announcement, the then Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, in his presentation of the 2012budget to parliament, announced that GH�1 million has been allocated to the Fund. Subsequently, in March 2012, Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa, then a Deputy Minister of Information, announced that the GH�1 million MDF was ready and would be operational in the second quarter of 2012. In his State of the Nation Address on February 21, 2013, President Mahama told the nation that: �The newly established Media Development Fund aimed at improving capacity within the media will be operationalised this year.� It was evident from the president�s statement that the MDF was not operationalised in 2012. Nine months after President Mahama�s promise and with just a month to the end of 2013, there is no evidence of the operationalisation of the Fund. Following a media release by the MFWA on October 24, raising questions about the whereabouts of the GH�1 million MDF, it emerged that all the key media stakeholders in the country including the national Media Commission, Ghana Journalists Association, Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association are all unaware of what has happened to the Fund. While there are places of information suggesting disagreements among stakeholders on how the fund should be managed, there has been silence on the fate of the Fund and whether or not there have been any disbursements. GIBA�s Denial Meanwhile, Executive Secretary of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), Gerald Ankrah has denied the association�s involvement in the disbursement of laptops procured with monies from the MDF. According to him, the statements made by Minster of Information and Media Relations, Mahama Ayariga on the floor of Parliament to the effect that some laptops were procured and given to some media organizations which included them are false. He said: �I must be candid with everybody that GIBA has not been involved in any distribution whatsoever with the Ministry of Information, we are really taken aback that the Minister could stand before Parliament and be so economical with the truth.� �GIBA has not received any laptops and we are not interested in any laptops,� he stressed. Mr. Ankrah expressed surprise at the submission by Mr. Ayariga saying, �It is most unfortunate that he is treating Parliament, an august house like this�� adding that GIBA never partook in any discussing which indicated they were interested in laptops saying, we have more pressing issues and not laptops�� Mr. Ankrah called on Parliament to launch an investigation into how the funds were disbursed. �The issue is that the management of the Media Development Fund (MDF) is still in question: until that thing is resolved why has the Minister of Information arrogated itself the right to disburse the National media fund without consulting the constituent bodies,� he noted. Mr. Ayariga on his part insisted the purchasing of the laptops for journalists was done in consultation with the various media bodies in the country. �Our staff at the Ministry can produce the records of the meetings and who participated in the meeting. We procured the laptops and we invited them, they came and had discussions about who should get what; all of them made a claim,� he stated. Mahama Ayariga on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday state the government was still in consultation with stakeholders to find the right means through which the monies will be disbursed.