DCE Stops GETFUND From Releasing Funds To Complete School Project

The chiefs and people of Mepe have accused the District Chief Executive (DCE) of North Tongu District Assembly, Madam Delphia Fafa Agbayi, of secretly using her position to stop the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) from releasing funds to a contractor to complete a six-unit classroom block project at Mepe Roman Catholic Primary School in the Volta region. According to a highly placed source, the DCE together with the chiefs, opinion leaders and stakeholders of Mepe visited the site of the project on Sunday, September 28, 2014. The source indicated that it was during this visit that Madam Fafa Agbavi, who was visibly angry, showed no sign of regret of how she used her position to undermine the efforts of the member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, and people of Mepe from sourcing additional funds from the GETFUND to complete the school building which has been left to rot away. The source disclosed that Madam Fafa Agbayi, who many people in the community described as �Tiger woman,� explained why she stopped the GETFUND, stating boldly that �I [Madam Fafa Agbayi] would never allow anyone to write officially to GETFUND to release additional money to the contractor to complete the abandoned school project at Mepe.� According to the source, Madam Fafa Agbayi�s stance stemmed from the reason that Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa and the people of Mepe during the debate on where the project should be sited, went against her outfit�s advice that the fund allocated for the project was not enough to execute the project at where the community had proposed for the school building to be built. The source went on to state that Madam Fafa Agbayi explained her reason was as a result of the bad nature of the new location of the project, and stated that: �I [Madam Fafa Agbayi] told the chiefs and people of Mepe that building school in its current location would lead to waste of the funds allocated for the project. That situation, Madam Fafa Agbayi stressed, would cause the project to incur additional costs which would derail the final completion of the project, the source added. But these pieces of advices, according to the North Tongu DCE, were brushed aside by the people of Mepe who went ahead to build the school project. Notwithstanding, Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa at a recent meeting with chiefs and people of Mepe further pleaded with the DCE to allow him to consult the GETFUND to release additional funds to the contractor to complete the project. According to him, the continuous failure of the Mahama administration to complete the school project at Mepe was creating disaffection between the government and residents of the area. But Madam Fafa Agbayi, the source said, quickly disagreed with Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa. That situation, Today learnt, compelled the chiefs and people in the community to call on President John Dramani Mahama to, as a matter of urgency, sack Madam Fafa Agbayi. Meanwhile, residents of Mepe have stated that the continuous stay in office by Madam Fafa Agbayi would pit the area against and NDC in the North Tongu constituency which is considered as an electoral �World Bank� of the party. The residents mentioned series of social and infrastructural projects by the government including school building project at Mepe that Madam Fafa Agbayi had used her executive position to stop since her assumption into office. The residents also spoke extensively about the series of unprofessional conducts Madam Fafa Agbayi has exhibited towards some chiefs, opinion leaders and stakeholders in the district, a situation which according to the residents, had created uneasy calm in the district. But when Today reached Madam Delphia Fafa Agbayi on phone, she debunked all the allegations, stressing that she has never used her position to write any letter to prevent GETFUND from releasing funds for the said project. She went on to disclose that she does not even know the head office of GETFUND in Accra. According to her, ever since she assumed office nobody has officially written to her outfit requesting for funds from the GETFUND to complete the school project at Mepe Roman Catholic Primary School. �It was once during a conversation with a member of Mepe Roman Catholic Church, Mr. G.E.A. Ajaklo, that I got to know that the school project had not been completed,� the DCE revealed. That, she recounted, happened on Sunday, 28 September, 2014 when they [referring to herself and NDC constituency executives] attended church service at the Roman Catholic Church where they seized the opportunity to visit the site, and it was during that visit that she got to know that the project had not been completed. Against this background, she called on residents of Mepe to stop the lies against her and rather come together and work to bring about development in the area. The DCE also denied knowledge of exhibiting any unprofessional conducts towards anybody in the area. The project, which according to residents of North Tongu, started in 2011 under late President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills, has been abandoned. The abandoned school project, the residents noted, was among the so-called number of eliminated highly publicised National Democratic Congress� (NDC�s) schools under tree project. And the inability on the part of the ruling NDC government to complete the school, according to the residents, has had debilitating effects on the general performance of school children in the area. What was surprising to many of the residents was why the Mahama administration included the abandoned Mepe school project in its eliminated 1,700 schools under trees which was also captured in the NDC�s �Green Book.� The residents told Today that �what was even disheartening was that after the ruling NDC persistently ignored calls from the people of Mepe to complete the six-unit classroom Roman Catholic Primary School, officials of the party managed to use the abandoned school building to campaign on various platforms in the area.� It would be recalled that Today recently reported on how the chiefs and people of Mepe were seething with anger against President Mahama for abandoning a six-unit classroom block project at Mepe Raman Catholic Primary School. This paper also reported on how the situation had had devastated effects on the teaching and learning of the school of which hundreds of pupils at Mepe Roman Catholic Primary were still studying under trees whilst the abandoned school building was left at the mercy of the weather. Attempts by this paper to speak to the management of GETFUND proved futile.