Former Deputy Energy Minister, John Jinapor has accused the Akufo-Addo administration of embezzling money designated for projects under the Zongo Development Fund.

Speaking at the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Policy Dialogue Series on Ghana’s energy sector Mr Jinapor claimed that out of the money meant for the Zongo development fund only ¢7 million has been utilised and the rest embezzled.

“So the overall 2000 so-called Zongo communities that they [government] say we have in Ghana only ¢7 million has been used the rest has gone into ‘chop-chop’,” he said.

He added, “So if you drive through the Zongo today, you won’t see anything different. They just go and repair somebody’s one-sitter toilet and Mustapha Abdul-Hamid [Zongo Minister] is all over with the media inspecting one toilet.”

He further added that the establishment of the Zongo development fund is a façade since government spent nothing on the Zongo communities in 2017 and 2018.

“I have done an analysis of tracking 2017, 2018 and 2019 and if you check how much they spent on capital expenditure, in 2017 it was zero, 2018 was zero, 2019 was GH₵7 million.

“So over the past three years that is what they [Akufo-Addo led government] have spent on infrastructure to lift the people of the Zongo out of poverty,” he said.

Parliament passed the Zongo Development Fund Act 964 in 2017 to, among other functions, invest in basic services and strategic infrastructure in Zongo communities, support local businesses in such communities and provide social protection for the poor and vulnerable in those communities.

The series was themed, ‘State of Ghana’s Energy Sector: Confronting Corruption and Ensuring Wealth Creation for all, not a few,’