Member of Parliament for Binduri, Issifu Mahmoud
The Member of Parliament for Binduri, Issifu Mahmoud, has criticized the GH₵150,000 project monitoring fund for MPs, saying it is “woefully inadequate” to address the variety of needs in their constituencies.
Using the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) distribution method, Parliament authorized GH₵250,000 for each Member of Parliament on Saturday, March 29.
The purpose of this allocation is to support educational initiatives in MPs’ districts. To oversee these initiatives, each Member of Parliament has been given an additional GH₵150,000.
Many people have criticized this decision, raising doubts about the sufficiency and necessity of the funds.
In an interview with Channel One Newsroom, the MP stressed that Members of Parliament frequently receive substantial financial demands from their constituents, such as requests for aid with school fees, medical bills, and other personal matters.
He noted that some senior MPs spend amounts exceeding the allocated funds to support their constituents.
“They [critics] are right to some extent. But they can only be right if they don’t understand the nature of the job of a Member of Parliament in a constituency. Because this so-called GH₵150,000 that is meant for us to do monitoring or whatever is woefully inadequate.
“Apart from us, the poorer MPs or those who are just starting, I know some senior MPs who even spend far more than GH₵150,000 in a week, in a month, as far as the needs of their constituency are concerned. They pay school fees, they assist people in all sectors of life in their constituencies,” Citi Newsroom quoted him as saying.
With the goal of improving learning conditions in diverse communities, the approved funds are intended to strengthen educational resources and infrastructure.
KA
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