Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Monday,
February 01, 2016
The opposition New Patriotic
Party (NPP) says the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government
cannot fight corruption and insists the ruling party’s record “is still one of
create, loot and share.”
“The NDC government has sought
to take some solace from the 2015 Transparency International report on
corruption. This attempt amounts to a fantasy, a mere fiddling while Ghana
burns from corruption and a poor attempt by President Mahama's government to
tickle itself and laugh,” the NPP said in a news release on Friday.
The statement issued in Accra
and signed by NPP Director of Communications, Nana Akomea, was a reaction to the
recent Corruption Perception Index (CPI) published by anti-graft body Transparency
International (TI), which ranked Ghana 56th out of 168 countries in the world
with a score of 47 in the fight against corruption.
According to TI, Ghana is the 7th
least corrupt country in Africa after Botswana – 63, Cape Verde – 55,
Seychelles – 55, Rwanda – 54, Mauritius and Namibia which scored 53.
The news has been received with
glee by President John Mahama who posted on his Facebook wall that the government was on course to tackling
corruption in the country. But the NPP has described the government’s position
as a ‘fantasy.’
Dubious Comfort
“One basis for the government's
fantasy is that it had placed 56th out of 168 countries and placed 7th in
Africa. But the government is not able to say if these positions amount to
improvement or not,” the statement said.
“In 2008, Ghana ranked 67th but
out of a bigger sample of 180 countries. Is 56th position out of 167 countries
in 2015 better or worse than 67th position out of 180 countries in 2008? The
stark reality is that Ghana actually dropped from a score of 48 out of 100 in
2014 to a score of 47 out of 100 in 2015.
“Quite strangely, while the NDC
government seeks some dubious comfort from the report, it is at the same time
attempting to pass it off as report on perception, largely caused by false allegations in the
media and also due to some so-called ‘paradox of exposure,’” the statement added.
“If the government’s fight
against corruption is really great, how can the media reports of this positive
and great fight lead to negative perception against the government?” the NPP queried.
False Claim
Nana Akomea said “the government
also seems happy about its claim that Ghana and Senegal have been mentioned as
making progress in the fight against corruption in Africa,” but said “this
claim is also dubious!”
He said “Ghana was mentioned in
terms of increased civil society and individual’s activism in anti-corruption
activities. This has nothing to do with
government. The credit for this belongs to civil activists like Occupy Ghana
and lmani Ghana and to individuals such as Martin Amidu and Anas Aremeyaw Anas.”
On the pledge to continue to
implement the national anti-corruption action plan, the NPP had “a little
advice to the NDC government: just implement the laws such as AFRCD 58, (as
advised by the Attorney General), the financial administration act, the
financial administration regulations, the law on causing financial loss, the
procurement law, etc.”
Poor Record
The NPP said the poor record of
the NDC government in fighting corruption was rooted “not just in perception
but in stark reality,” adding, “GYEEDA, Woyome, SADA, Subah, Waterville,
Smarttys, etc are not perceptions.”
It said the TI report identified
transparency and accountability as well as prosecution as key ingredients in
fighting corruption but the NDC government's record on these “is appalling.”
“Major financial dealings such
as loans for the GNPC, floatation of ADB shares and the IMF loan agreement were
not taken to Parliament. Value for money
audit for the many sole sourced public works is largely not done. Mandatory reports
on public procurement to Parliament are not done.”
Record on Prosecution
“The record on prosecution for
financial wrongdoing is even worse. Two former ministers of state in another
government were prosecuted for alleged infringement of the Procurement Law.
Ghanaians
are therefore still in a state of
shocked disbelief over the twists and turns that have led to the loss/siphoning
of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ monies in the Woyome affair, in the
Waterville affair, in GYEEDA, in SADA,
in Subah, in Smarttys, etc.
“President Mahama’s government,
this time, will not prosecute. Even when court orders to recover taxpayers’
monies are secured through the efforts of others, the NDC government is unable
to recover the monies,” Nana Akomea said and added, “even where the government
goes into agreements for mere refunds of taxpayers’ monies, very little refund
is reported. Massive payments of taxpayers’ monies for no work done have been
regular.”
Bus Branding
The NPP further said the bus
branding saga involving Selassie Ibrahim’s Smarttys Productions “clearly
illustrates the corruption-friendly profile of President Mahama’s NDC
government.”
“The Attorney General's
investigation into this matter found that the bus branding work was awarded,
commenced and completed even before the procurement process was started, and
before any contract was signed; and that the sole sourced contract resulted in
over payment of nearly two million Ghana cedis (GH¢ 2 million).”
The statement added: “The
Attorney General recommended further investigation of all state officials
involved in this breach of the various laws on the use of public funds. So far,
what has happened is the resignation of the sector minister and President
Mahama ordering a refund of the excess looted taxpayers’ monies.”
No comments:
Post a Comment