The country Director of Send Ghana, a non-governmental organization, George Osei-Bimpeh, has recommended that those cited for alleged malfeasance in the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) report must be charged with causing financial loss to the state.

According to him, prosecuting the case in court, will help retrieve monies invested in the SADA project but had not used for the intended purposes in the selected communities in the three Northern regions and parts of Volta and Brong Ahafo regions.

“Send Ghana invested $250,000 in a module  and has achieved a lot of success in some parts of the North. So, how then do we allow millions of Ghana Cedis to go unaccounted for?”, he wondered.

SADA in partnership with Asongtaba Cottage Industries planted 5 million trees in the three northern regions of Ghana -- Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions -- as well as parts of Brong Ahafo and Volta regions of the SADA ecological zones with the aim of greening those areas and reducing the effect of climate change at a cost of GH¢33 million.

However, long dry season and bushfires allegedly destroyed majority of the trees planted.

An interim report by the Auditor-General states that GH¢1,059,649.00 went into “Inappropriate mode of selecting Consultants,” for SADA.

According to the report, SADA had employed the services of highly skilled professionals, who are well remunerated to carry out their assignments, yet management contracted four consultants and had been paying them monthly fees totaling a whooping GH¢620,206.00.

The four are Dr. Charles Jebuni as Chief Technical Advisor, who took a total of GH¢437,206.00 in a period of 22 months (GH¢19,873.00 monthly); Salifu Mahama as Engineer for Housing, took a total of GH¢96,000.00 in 16 months (GH¢6,000.00 monthly); Bakari Sadiq Nyari, Land, grabbed a total of GH¢108,000.00 in 10 months (GH¢10,800.00 monthly) and Kennedy S. Mohammed, Resource Mobilization, collected a total of GH¢75,000.00 in 10 months (GH¢7,500.00 monthly).

Six officials of SADA have also been asked to pay back over 830,000 Ghana cedis to the Authority.

Two of the six, who are board members, are supposed to pay back GH¢60,000 they received from SADA for performing unspecified administrative duties.

The situation has led to public criticisms of SADA officials for purported malfeasance in the implementation of the projects.

In an interview with Afia Pokua on Adom FM/Asempa FM’s Burning Issues on the way forward to the SADA projects, Mr.  Osei-Bimpeh called for the law to take its course.

Mr. Osei-Bimpeh believes consulting the right stakeholders would have helped in prioritizing the needs of those in the SADA selected communities.