School feeding brouhaha in the Central Region – MMDCEs call for calm

There has been a circulating audio on social media that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Central Regional Chairman, Mr Robert Kutin Jnr has allegedly spent the school feeding caterers money which was supposed to settle their debt.

The tape was suspected to have been recorded by the Central Regional National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) Coordinator, Mr Joseph Donkoh.

A press statement was released on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, by the Central Regional MMDCEs, signed by Central Regional MMDCEs DEAN, Mr Kofi Baako, NALAG President, Hon. Bismarck Baisie Nkum and Mr Benjamin Kojo Otoo debunking accusations that the audio 'lack basis."

 BELOW IS THE PRESS STATEMENT

Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in the Central Region together with the Regional Minister have chanced on an audio recording which suggests that monies belonging to school feeding caterers who cooked for students in Private Schools (JHS2 and JHS3) in the region have been paid into a supposed merchant account belonging to the Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party - Mr Robert Kutin Jnr.  

The statement made in the recorded audio was categorically from the Regional Director of NADMO, Mr Joseph Donkor.

We wish to make the following statements in respect of the allegation made by Mr Joseph Donkor.

1. That, Mr Joseph Donkor could not substantiate the allegation on the platform where he made the said allegation.

2. That, Mr Joseph Donkor referenced his unfortunate statement to a purported post on a WhatsApp platform by one Khadijah. This means that he has no basis for making such an allegation. In fact, his statement can best be described as hearsay.

3. That the Regional Chairman was not in any way involved in the management of the said School Feeding program for private schools in the region.

4. That, it is not a procedure for the School Feeding Secretariat to deposit monies into the accounts of persons who are not involved in the School Feeding Program.

It is instructive to note that caterers involved across the Region met a few days ago to deny the said allegation thrown at the person of Mr Robert Kutin Jnr.
According to the caterers, they have received payment in full for work done. They have subsequently received payments for services rendered to JHS 2 students across the Region except for the 20 days which is still outstanding. It is, therefore, mind-boggling to hear individuals who should have known better rather spew this falsehood in the public domain.

We are, however, not surprised at the turn of events; we are not unaware of the numerous efforts by some faceless individuals to make the Regional Chairman look bad in the sight of the numerous NPP members who look up to him for success in the region. The regional election is fast approaching and that the plan is, let us malign him, spew falsehood against him to make him unpopular, let us attack his person and integrity. This is all there is to it.

We, MMDCEs in the Central Region together with the Regional Minister have worked with the Regional Chairman for close to 8 years, either as Constituency/Regional party executives or government officials under the great Elephant party. We know how incorruptible Mr Robert Kutin is, he is very honest in his dealings with party faithfuls’. Indeed, if the statement was meant to impugn his integrity, then the crafters of such evil thoughts have failed. They have rather corroborated his incorruptible nature.

Mr Robert Kutin Jnr. is unarguably one of the best if not the best Regional Chairman we have produced since 1992. He became the Central Regional Chairman at a time that we had only 7 seats in Parliament out of the 23 seats. He led the party to win as many as 19 Parliamentary seats in the 2016 elections. Yes, we lost 9 of these 19 Parliamentary seats in the recent elections, but again as a party, we won 19 out of the 23 constituencies in the Presidential Elections. No Central Regional Chairman has ever done this. We, therefore, call on all well-meaning NPP members (polling station/constituency executives) as well as the general public to completely disregard this vile propaganda against the person of Mr Robert Kutin Jnr.

We MMDCEs in the region pledge our unwavering support for Mr Kutin Jnr. and wish to state that we are ready to work with him to retain his seat as the Regional Chairman should he decide at any time to seek a third term in office. 

We will not engage in politics of insult and character assassination; we do know that Mr Kutin Jnr himself is well cultured and will not attack the person of anyone wishing to contest him so we call on all party members who wish to contest any position in the Region in the upcoming regional elections to thrive on the issue-based campaign so that in the end, we can have a united party which is well prepared for election 2024.
 
Thank you.
 
----signed----------                                                                                                                                                                                       Dean of MMDCEs – Central Region
DEAN – KOFI BAAKO

NALAG PRESIDENT- BISMARK BAISIE NKUM

BENJAMIN KOJO OTOO