Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday, August 02, 2016
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has observed that the recent Supreme
Court order for the Attorney General (AG) to release the agreement signed
between the governments of Ghana and the United States of America in respect of
the transfer of two ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees (Gitmo 2) to Ghana, is an
indication that the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC)
administration is not running a transparent government.
“The 1992 Constitution is anchored on probity, transparency and
accountability in the governance of the country. The NDC constitution also
gives pride of place to the tenets of probity, transparency and accountability.
President Mahama in the early days of his presidency, declared: ‘As President, l
am committed to running a transparent and accountable government, devoid of
corruption.’ It is therefore, with great shock that the NPP and many Ghanaians
have observed the total lack of transparency and accountability in President
Mahama 's government,” NPP Communications Director Nana Akomea, said in a
statement yesterday.
Court Order
According to the NPP, it took a court to order the release of the
agreement President Mahama had with the US government over the relocation of the
former Gitmo detainees to Ghana and said, “That was a clear example of President
Mahama's non-transparency and non-accountability.”
The statement underscored, “In this Gitmo saga, with national
security implications, Parliament of Ghana was kept in the dark. It is
apparent that even Cabinet and the National Security Council were not fully
briefed nor consulted as two cabinet ministers of state, also members of the National Security
Council, have stated publicly they did
not have full details of the Gitmo agreement.”
The NPP noted, “In the wake of the arrival in Ghana of the detainees,
there was so much concern from Ghanaians on the implications for national and personal
security, and possibly violation of the law.
There were also so many
conflicting statements on the conditions of the stay of the Gitmo 2 in Ghana.
Despite the resultant widespread calls for full disclosure, President Mahama
remained adamant.”
Smarttys
Linkage
The NPP said the Gitmo 2 saga could be likened to the Smarttys controversial
bus branding contract that sent tongues wagging due to the huge amount
involved.
“The Smartty's bus branding saga is another sad story in the
governance of non-transparency and non-accountability. Public funds had been
spent on the dubious decision to put colour images of President Mahama and NDC
campaign slogan on public buses. When this activity and expenditure were exposed,
there was great public indignation and protest. In response, government
directed the Attorney General and Minister for Justice to investigate.
“Despite the huge public
interest and agitation, the government refused to publish the findings of the
Attorney General but rather issued a terse White Paper. It had to take a court
order obtained by a group of patriotic citizens to order government to publish
this report,” the party bemoaned.
GNPC Loans
According to the NPP, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC),
a public body, procures loans that are secured by the Ghanaian taxpayer, but
the corporation, with ‘tacit’ support from the government, had refused to disclose
the terms and conditions of the loans.
“GNPC rather decided to fight a court action that sought to compel
them to full disclosure before parliament. Even though the court upheld GNPC's
case, the strong and costly resistance they put up against disclosing loan
agreements to parliament, has further dented the aims of transparency and
accountability in governance,” the party claimed.
ADB Shares
The party also said that Agriculture Development Bank (ADB), a
public financial institution, recently embarked on shares floatation and despite
calls and expectations that the terms and conditions should be disclosed before
parliament, “ADB refused and instead resorted to all kinds of manoeuvres,
giving rise to allegations of bribery, just to avoid disclosure.”
The statement said the bank’s actions had the “tacit support of a
government that had proclaimed transparency and accountability to the people of
Ghana.”
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