The National Commission for Civic Education has refuted allegations made by an Accra newspaper that two Nissan patrol vehicles intended for the Brong Ahafo and Volta Regional directors of the commission have been diverted to two commission members for their personal use. "No Nissan patrol has been allocated to any commissioner for personal use," said Paapa Nketsia, Director of Public Affairs of the commission, at a press briefing in Accra. Mr. Nketsia said, to enhance the commission’s ability to perform its functions, it decided to use part of its funds allocated by the government to purchase some vehicles and motor bikes. "As at now the commission has received 11 Nissan patrols, 40 pick-ups and 40 motor bikes," he said, explaining that allocation of resources from the headquarters to the regions was based on the principles of fairness and sound administrative practice." "The standard criteria used include geographical size, population size (number of districts in the regions, nature of terrain). In addition, the nationally accepted poverty ranking of the 10 regions is also used," he said. Mr. Nketsia said it was therefore invalid to say that in distributing the vehicles, some regions were marginalized as the newspaper sought to portray. On the issue of alleged double salaries, he said that the allegation that three other members of the commission received double salaries was untenable saying, "what Parliament approved for the commission members of NCCE is classified as ‘allowance’ not salary." That, he said, was not unique to only members of the NCCE but other members of governance institutions as well. Larry Bimi, Chairman of the NCCE, on his part, appealed to the media to join the commission to be more proactive in strategising and acting in concert to consolidate the democratic cultural environment in the country. Source: The Ghanaian Times