The Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has criticised the Mahama administration over the implementation of the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) project.He accused the government of stalling flood control works while attempting to shift blame to the previous Akufo-Addo administration.Responding to claims by Sagnarigu MP Atta Issah that the current government has spent more on flood control under GARID in two years than the New Patriotic Party did in five, Mr Oppong Nkrumah dismissed the figures as propaganda and said the real issue is that the project has been slowed by expenditure controls imposed by the Ministry of Finance despite the project being fully funded.“Those days when the NDC could just tell lies and throw figures and allegations out there and confuse people are over.“They have been in power for one and a half years, and they have introduced measures that have stalled the project,” he said.Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the opposition New Patriotic Party had deliberately avoided politicising the flood disaster, stressing that the NPP’s 2024 presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, had called for unity and support for affected victims rather than partisan attacks.“We don’t intend to do politics with this. Dr Bawumia, when he got on the ground, the first thing he said was thatno politics. Let’s focus on helping people. Let’s come together and help people. They are the ones who are trying to do politics with this,” he said.He warned, however, that if the government insists on turning the issue into a political contest, the NPP would respond by exposing what he described as clear evidence that the Mahama administration’s own decisions had constrained the progress of the GARID project.“And if you go into partisan politics, we will show you that the evidence is clear that you have stopped the project from going on,” he said.Mr Oppong Nkrumah took particular issue with attempts by government communicators to justify the delays by citing how portions of GARID funds were used under the previous administration, including on training and consultancy.He argued that if the current government believed there had been any misapplication of project funds, it had been in office long enough to investigate and act, rather than continue to use allegations as a political defence while flood victims suffer.“Assuming without admitting all the grammar that the NDC is talking about, that somebody used something for training, and if there has been misapplication of funds, you were in opposition, the NDC kept making the point that Cecilia Dapaah is taking money… You have been in power for one and a half years and you are still speaking this grammar,” he said.The former Information Minister said the government itself had admitted that the GARID project was fully funded and therefore had no justification for failing to release money to contractors to continue critical flood mitigation works.“The money that is available, you are supposed to apply it to contractors who are working. You are not doing that because you want to constrain expenditure and produce some figures and tell Ghanaians that fiscal discipline, the figures are disciplined, expenditure is low, we are doing well, and the economy is better when nothing has changed in the Ghanaian economy,” he said.He accused the government of prioritising public relations and headline fiscal numbers over urgent interventions needed to protect lives and property.Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the administration should rather be showing humility and urgency in the face of the flood disaster by speeding up disbursements, desilting drains and ensuring contractors are paid to continue flood prevention works.“Thirty-seven people are dying and you are not releasing the money… Instead of having the humility to take responsibility and say our focus now should be on speeding up disbursement so that the kind of desilting and payment of contractors that must happen should happen so that we don’t lose one more life, you are here speaking grammar,” he said.He also criticised what he described as the government’s misplaced focus on political blame at a time when flood victims urgently need relief and public health support.According to him, attention should now be on emergency assistance for displaced residents, including food, drinking water and mosquito nets, as well as measures to prevent disease outbreaks in heavily polluted communities.“People are dying. There are people whose homes they can’t live in. I spoke to somebody today who, in the midst of trying to save people, had snakes flowing through the water biting them. They need help,” he said.“Our business right now, our focus should be how we can get this thing on the ground to provide mosquito nets, drinking water, and food to people whose items have been destroyed,” he added.Mr Oppong Nkrumah ended with a direct appeal to the government to stop what he called the politicisation of the flood disaster and focus instead on urgent action to save lives.“I beg my brother Atta Issah, I beg my brother Ato Forson, and I beg the NDC government to stop the partisan politicisation and trying to justify that it was the NPP’s fault,” he said.“Even the World Bank report doesn’t support the propaganda you are doing.”