‘MONEYCRACY’ RULES IN NDC SAYS BOTCHWEY REPORT

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

The 13-member Prof Kwesi Botchwey Committee that investigated the causes of the defeat of the then ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2016 general elections identified the obscene use of money by party gurus as one of the causes.

The report says money had taken over the NDC, making the party to go for the highest bidder.

The report, which is being kept like a state classified document, posits, “The rise of moneycracy in the party generally was the NDC’s undoing.”

According to the 65-page Executive Summary of the report, the party’s ideology and philosophy  had been ‘weakened’ by the influence of money and that had brought in what it calls “waning of party ideology and philosophy generally, leading to ethnicism and opportunistic attitudes to settler communities in various constituencies.”

The report claims that there is also “the neglect of the party’s democratic focus in policy-making.”

It continues, “The alienation of the party’s ‘natural’ social democratic allies – workers and their unions, farmers, small-scale businessmen and women, traders, teachers, nurses, junior civil servants, etc” was also a factor in the defeat.

It further says there was “inadequate recognition of the demographic transition in our national population.”

According to the report, campaign funds used by the NDC were misappropriated by party executives and candidates.

It underscores that some contributors the committee members interacted with said the leadership of the party doled out huge sums of money to support then President John Mahama’s re-election bid - which crashed on December 7, 2016 - but the cash were pocketed by the party’s officials.

“Several contributors held the view that huge amounts were channeled through the party’s executives and parliamentary candidates who seemed to have pocketed or ‘edited’ moneys sent,” the 65-page Executive Summary points out on Page 29.

The report, however, states that “except in few cases, no executive admitted to receiving any monies from sources.”

“What seemed to be clear was that a large part of campaign financing was done through channels other than the party’s regional or constituency treasuries,” the report claims, giving an indication that most funds came through the party’s headquarters and unusual channels.

The report reveals how the NDC parliamentary candidates were receiving funds for their respective campaigns and how many NDC party agents who supervised the December 7 election were still not paid for work done.

“The team was informed that the parliamentary candidates were sometimes invited to Accra to collect campaign money directly,” it says.

"At the time of the consultations, many polling agents had still not been paid their allowances. Others complained that they had been paid reduced amounts,” it adds.

Parlous Finance

According to the report, the NDC’s finances were in a precarious situation, although there was public perception that the then ruling party was financially sound, judging by the flamboyant and profligate campaigns displayed all over the country by President John Mahama.

 “We found out that the party’s finances are, contrary to popular belief, in a rather parlous state,” the report reveals, adding, “We discuss the subject fully in the main report and recommend that the party adhere strictly to the provisions of the NDC Constitution and implement a dues-based regime of party financing that would be sustainable and would moreover enable the party to stem the influence of moneycracy in the conduct of the party’s affairs, as well as give the party membership and the grassroots a sense of ownership and empowerment.”

The report says that on election day, there were widespread transportation glitches, and that affected the NDC negatively.

According to it, Kofi Adams, the National Organizer, had told the NDC campaign team that it (party) made adequate transport arrangements but the problem was abused “by some unscrupulous party members who wanted to profit from the process.”

It adds that Kofi Adams had indicated that “some party members would board the buses from the party’s headquarters in Accra, get off somewhere within Accra and then return to the party headquarters for more allowances for transport.

“This, according to him (Kofi Adams), created the congestion at the party headquarters and gave rise to the impression that there was not adequate transport arrangement for the election.”

The committee asserts that it later found out that “the reports of inadequate transport were not limited to the party headquarters and therefore Greater Accra,” adding, “the rest of the regions had similar concerns and these were made known to the committee.”

It underscores for instance, that “in some regions, the complaints were particularly related to the non-decentralization of the transport arrangements,” adding, “According to them, it was the national that sought to arrange transport for the regions without the involvement of the regional party officers, and this in their view, created a lot of bureaucratic bottlenecks in the process and its attendant shortfalls.”

NDC GURUS IN DIRTY FIGHT OVER VEEP POSITION

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Monday, October 30, 2017

It has emerged that Samuel Ofosu Ampofo wanted to be vice president when President John Evans Atta Mills suddenly passed away in July 2012.

Mr Ampofo’s ambition to run for the presidency is still alive, playing the Eastern Region card, DAILY GUIDE can confirm.

However, when he was asked to prove his academic credentials, he failed woefully, according to Bismark Tawiah Boateng, the current Eastern Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“When there was a vacancy at the presidency following the death of President John Evans Atta Mills, he (Ofosu Ampofo) wanted President Mahama, who was then acting, to select him as his vice,” Mr. Tawiah Boateng told Yaw Amofa Boakye on Oman FM’s morning show, ‘National Agenda,’ last Friday in reaction to the Prof. Kwesi Botchwey Committee’s damning report.

“He called some of us together to help him to become the vice president when he was the Local Government Minister and I even asked him to tell us about his educational   qualification so that we would know how to lobby for him,” the regional chairman, who was given a negative spin in the Kwesi Botchwey report, revealed.

“I attended the meeting together with our Regional Women’s Organizer, our then Chairman (Julius Debrah), our Youth Organizer and Nana Mamfehene in the presence of Mr. Kofi Attor at the Ministry of Local Government in Accra and Ofosu Ampofo asked us to lobby for him to become vice president.”

Mr Tawiah Boateng, who sounded disappointed, said he suspected that the query he issued to Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo over his vice presidential ambition had become the basis for mounting smear campaign against him (Tawiah Boateng) and concluded, “If that is why Ofosu Ampofo hates me, then that’s up to him.”

Mr Ofosu Ampofo aka‘Bra Sammy Foto’ because of his previous profession as a photographer cum pupil teacher, has not yet responded to the allegations made against him; but DAILY GUIDE can confirm that the former Local Government Minister is lobbying hard to be selected as running mate to partner whoever gets the nod to lead the NDC for election 2020, provided the person is not from an Akan enclave - having lost the slot to Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur in 2012 after the death of President Mills.

Mr Amissah-Arthur is not likely to be selected by John Mahama, in the event of he (Mahama) securing the NDC slot, Amissah-Arthur having performed abysmally in his own Central Region – which gave key parliamentary seats to the NPP.

The NDC regional chairman, who was commenting on a portion of the Prof. Kwesi Botchwey-led 13-member Committee report that states that he allegedly pocketed campaign cash, was particularly incensed that it was Ofosu-Ampofo who is believed to be prosecuting the agenda in the report.

He accused Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo - who was the NDC Director of Elections when the NDC lost miserably - of spreading falsehood about him and said it was clear that it was the Elections Director who had given that false information to the committee, when he knew very well that it was a lie.

Mr Tawiah Boateng said that since he decided to move away from regional organizer to become regional chairman, Mr. Ofosu Ampofo had continuously undermined him by making false allegations against him.

He said emphatically that Mr. Ampofo never gave him any GH¢1 million as being alleged asking, “10 billion old cedis? In what vehicle did they he carry such an amount to me?”

When he was told by the programme host that there were rumours that Ofosu Ampofo brought GH¢100,000 to him, Tawiah Boateng answered rhetorically “so it is no longer GH¢1 million?

“He brought GH¢100,000 and said the region should take GH¢50,000 and security personnel should take GH¢50,000 and everybody got his share and that does not mean that Tawiah Boateng pocketed any money,” he admitted.

“The GH¢100,000 came to the region but it was not from the pocket of Ofosu Ampofo. It was given to me in the presence of party officials, including the Regional Treasurer, and I handed it over to my secretary who runs the day-to-day administration of the party in the region.

“They brought money for the officials to tour polling stations on election day at 3:35 pm (15:45 hours). We could not distribute it to the members because it was only an hour-and-a-half for polling to close. It was the following day that we directed that anybody who pre-financed the activities should have a refund.

“From the time we lost the election, nobody mentioned this until we are set for another election and these things have started coming up, There was a Campaign Coordinator; he was in-charge of all resources. We have a treasurer, you can find out everything from him,” Tawiah Boateng stated.

EC BOSS PINK SHEETS CONTRACT POPS UP

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Monday, October 30, 2017

The controversial contract awarded to a private firm by the Electoral Commission (EC) for the printing of the Statement of Polls and Declaration of Results Forms - popularly called Pink Sheets - during the crucial general elections almost a year ago, is resurfacing.

This is because a petitioner, who is seeking the removal of the EC chairperson, Charlotte Osei, has claimed that the EC boss put herself in a conflict of interest situation when she awarded the contract to Aerovote Security Printing (Ghana) Limited to print the pink sheets.

Pre-Arranged Deal

According to Douglas Seidu, who is a lawyer by profession, Ms Charlotte Osei, has strong business links with the Director of Aerovote and is interpreting that to mean a situation of conflict of interest and had ‘arranged’ the deal even before the procurement process opened.

“The respondent patently ignored a conflict of interest situation when she advocated, ensured and superintended over a contract that was awarded to Aerovote Security Printing (Ghana) Limited, whose Director used to be a client of Prime Attorneys, a company owned by the Respondent (EC Boss),” the lawyer said in his petition to President Akufo-Addo, which has since been forwarded to the Chief Justice for action.

Prior Correspondence 

“I have seen prior contractual correspondence between the respondent, Ms Tutua (Manager of Prime Attorneys) and the Director of Aerovote Security Printing (Ghana) Limited that suggests that the respondent arranged the contract at the blind side of the EC at a time when the procurement process had not begun,” part of the petition - a copy of which is in possession of DAILY GUIDE - reads.

Mr. Seidu is seeking the removal of Mrs. Charlotte Osei on grounds of breach of public procurement practices and provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 633) as amended, gross financial mismanagement, as well as conflict of interest.

Public Outcry 

It would be recalled that in the heat of the election processes, there was public outcry over the award of the pink sheets contract to Aerovote, which some critics claimed it was inflated when the GH¢7.2 million price was revealed by the commission.

At that time, the contention was that some local companies were said to be willing to execute the same contract for less but the EC allegedly ignored them and gave it to Aerovote, although Mrs. Charlotte Osei had variously insisted that her outfit wanted a value-for-money transaction. 

The actual tender at the opening was GH¢8.95 million, which the EC announced Aerovote – a company that was bankrupt as at 2013 but relocated to Ghana sometime in November 2015 – as the winner; but by the time it reached the public, the amount had changed to GH¢7.2 million.

Opposition Protest

When the then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) raised issues about the propriety of Aerovote’s contractual obligations, the Communications Director at the EC, Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, issued a statement condemning the NPP for raising what he deemed ‘false’ alarm.

“It is false that Aerovote was awarded a contract worth US$8.95 million for the printing of the Statement of Polls and Declaration of Results Forms. The contract awarded to Aerovote by the Commission is way below US$2 million in value (GH¢7.2 million),” he said among other things in the statement.

Deafening Silence 

The EC, at the time, did not appear to explain to the public how it ended up with GH¢7.2 million as the contract sum, after Aerovote had quoted GH¢8.9 million at the opening of the actual tender.

According to the procurement rules, any transaction worth more than GH¢1 million should automatically go through the Central Tender Board for concurrent approval, but in this pink sheet contract, which the EC says cost the taxpayer GH¢7.2 million, it does not appear that that rule was followed.

Controversial Letter

The EC boss, in a controversial letter to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) in September 2016 asking the authority to re-open the process and admit Aerovote to be part of the process, had laid emphasis on the issue of value-for-money as her basis for getting the company in.

Curiously, the EC as far back as October 2015 had written to PPA about the procurement of electoral materials, including the pink sheets, and had presented a list excluding Aerovote, as the companies that were going to be part of the processes.

However, eyebrows were raised in September 2016 - one clear year after the submission of the list of companies - when Mrs Charlotte Osei wrote again to the PPA asking the authority to include Aerovote in the process.

Aerovote Existence

A source told DAILY GUIDE last year that he believed that as at October 2015 when the EC boss was writing to the PPA to submit the list of companies to be engaged in the tendering process, Aerovote was not even registered in Ghana.

Procurement Breach

The source further said that Aerovote’s selection appears to be in conflict with the procurement laws because the tender laws say that every participating company must have two years’ account (balance) sheet but that cannot be said to have been done.

Spirited Defence 

The EC boss clarified the issues on BBC in the heat of the election campaign in 2016 when she put up a spirited defence for Aerovote, saying, “The company has always printed them (pink sheets) for us and has now relocated to Ghana which made their pricing better for us.

“This time, we did not have to bear the high freight charges that we would have had to bear and also the time for shipping.”  

BOTCHWEY REPORT: DISASTER FOR NDC SAYS NII LANTEY

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Saturday, October 28, 2017

A member of the committee that investigated what actually caused the massive defeat of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in election 2016 has said that any attempt to release the committee’s report to the public would spell doom for the party.

According to Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, who is the NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Odododiodioo in Accra, the party’s leadership should not succumb to public pressure, especially the media, to release the report since it would be “disastrous” to do so.

He said the content is not palatable, and so if it gets to the public the NDC would be finished as a political party.

The continuous publication of the report of Prof. Kwesi Botchwey’s 13-member Committee is causing uneasy calm in the largest opposition party.

The massive leakage has undoubtedly dazed the party’s leadership, which has been running away from the content, with some of the members claiming that what the media have been publishing - particularly DAILY GUIDE – are all fake.

The report paints a damning picture of how the NDC lost the 2016 elections, exposing the weaknesses in the party’s structure.

It describes former President John Mahama as a ‘movie star’ and ‘naked’ as he was not in tune with the reality on the ground.

Although some leaders of the NDC are denying the contents of the report - which are indicting some of its top officers - the bigwigs of the party are refusing to make public what they term the ‘accurate’ report.

They have insisted variously that the publications are false; but are at the same time, busily implementing the recommendations of the report on the unpopular biometric registration, which DAILY GUIDE earlier published.

Inferior Tactics

Nii Lantey Vanderpuye told Joy FM in Accra on Thursday that the media were using ‘inferior’ tactics to put pressure on the NDC leadership to release the report.

“What these people are doing is communist inferior tactics to compel us to put the report out there,” Mr. Vanderpuye said, adding, “I can say as a member of the committee that anything that possibly will induce us, coerce us or push us to put the original report out will spell the doom of the party, and I will never recommend that.”

He confirmed the existence of an executive summary of the report which DAILY GUIDE has been serializing.

“We’ve done an executive summary which has been made available for public consumption, but the report itself is an in-house medicine to heal us," he said.

“It’s for us and our own consumption and not for somebody else. When the NPP did their report, did they put it out in the public domain? Why are they expecting us to put ours in the public domain? We will never do that. They are doing this to get us to put out the original report,” he charged.

“We’ve used wisdom and intelligence to craft a report that critically diagnoses the problems of the party,” the Odododiodioo MP added.

NO FOOD FOR NDC POLLING AGENTS…BOTCHWEY REPORT REVEALS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, October 27, 2017

It has emerged that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) starved its members who served as polling agents on election day - December 7, 2016. They were not provided with food.

The 13-member Prof Kwesi Botchwey Committee report that investigated causes of the NDC’s massive defeat in the 2016 general elections reveals that some of the desperate agents had to rely on the then opposition party agents for food, even though huge amounts of money were voted for that purpose.

The money ended up in the pockets of party officials whom the Botchwey Committee said should be probed in order to recover it.

“There were reports of the party’s polling agents not being fed on election day,” the 65-page Executive Summary of the report states on Page 32.

Starving Agents 

The report recounts how some of the party’s agents were fed very late on the crucial election day and others looking elsewhere to find their own food, making policing of the ballot difficult.

“In Upper West, for instance, it was reported to the committee that some of the polling agents were not fed up to 4pm on the day and had to rely on the food that was supplied to NPP polling agents,” the report says.

According to the report, “Some of these claims were made to the committee with extreme anger and emotions.”

Unplanned Logistics

The report says that the NDC did not plan as far as distribution of logistics on election day was concerned.

“The committee found that the mobilization and distribution of logistics was unplanned and uncoordinated and left much room for suspicion and manipulation,” according to the report.

Even though the NDC was swimming in an uncharted wealth, the report claims, “There were widespread complaints about a general lack of logistics across the country to cater for the 2016 election.”

No Money

According to the report, the committee heard how money meant for monitoring the process on the election day arrived very late in many places.

“Money meant for the monitoring of the elections arrived on the eve of the elections and in some cases arrived on the day of the elections,” the report posits.

It continues, “For instance, in the Upper East and Upper West, their Election Directors had to travel to the Northern Region to receive their regions’ money meant for the monitoring of the elections on the day of the election. In the Upper West Region in particular, constituents complained that as a result of the late arrival of the money for monitoring, the region was unable to monitor the elections in the region and could therefore not guarantee if the results that were published for the region represented an accurate account of what transpired  on election day.”

Security Of Voters

According to the report, the NDC could not take intelligence report on how the state security was performing in the protection of voters on election day, saying, “in Walewale in the Northern Region for instance, the committee was informed of how the state security neglected the policing of some polling stations that were especially located in the hinterlands leading to the firing of warning shots at those polling stations to intimidate voters.

“This unfortunate development led to poor monitoring and supervision of the elections in some parts of the region.”

No Transport

The NDC, according to the report, did not have its own vehicles to transport its electoral materials to the regions and the constituencies prior to the election day and had to rely on public transport to ferry the materials.

“This, in the committee’s view, could not have been a conducive measure to secure the party’s participation in the electoral process,” the report indicates.

Seal

It said the NDC’s own seals it imported ahead of the election to secure the ballots on “are still in the warehouse.”

BOTCHWEY REPORT DAZES NDC

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, October 26, 2017

The continuous publication of the report of Prof. Kwesi Botchwey-led 13-member Committee that investigated what actually caused the defeat of the then ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is causing uneasy calm in the largest opposition party.

The massive leakage of the report appears to have dazed the party’s leadership, which has been running away from the content, with some of the members of the party claiming that what the media have been publishing - particularly DAILY GUIDE - is fake.

The Kwesi Botchwey Committee’s report paints a damning picture of how the NDC lost the 2016 elections, exposing the weaknesses in the party’s structure.

It describes former President John Mahama as a ‘movie star’ and ‘naked’ as he was not in tune with the reality on the ground.

They are denying contents of the report, which is indicting some of its top officers, including John Mahama, for causing the party’s embarrassing defeat in the 2016 general elections, but are refusing to make public what they term the ‘accurate’ report.

Some of the party’s leaders are claiming that the continuous publication by DAILY GUIDE and lately, other media outlets, are false; but are at the same time, busily implementing the recommendations of the report on the unpopular biometric registration which the media earlier published.

Mosquito’s Intervention

Yesterday, NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia aka General Mosquito, waded into the issue and cynically claimed it is the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government which had prepared a fake report against the opposition party (NDC) and given it to the media for action.

He said the Akufo-Addo-led administration was instigating the negative publications against the NDC to cover up what he claimed to be the government’s current failures, adding that the NPP does not hesitate to refer to the report anytime it is in crisis.

“I believe sincerely that it is an orchestration by the NPP government to divert attention from the current difficulties that the masses are going through,” Mr. Asiedu Nketia told Citi FM.

Hidden Document

“We’ve taken a position that Kwesi Botchwey’s report is meant for internal consumption so it has not been published anywhere so any commentary that is being run or any alleged capturing of Botchwey’s report and serialisation cannot represent any genuine document coming from NDC,” he said.

Mr. Asiedu Nketia continued, “The day there was news about the $2.5bn scandal and everybody was debating, then we came back to something allegedly coming from the Botchwey report; then we moved on to Maj. Mahama’s death and everybody was discussing it then bam! - another thing purportedly coming from Botchwey’s report. Then we came to the contaminated fuel matter, when it was being discussed then another thing coming from the Botchwey report.”

False Report

The NDC general secretary said, “What the media is writing about can never be the Botchwey report, so if you are deceiving yourself by publishing things and alleging things that it is coming from page ‘so so and so’ and it is coming from the Botchwey report, you are deceiving yourself,” adding, “If you go and fabricate things and put them there hoping that the fabrication will now force people to publish what the truth is, you’ll be deceiving yourself.

“If any media house alleges that there was something indicting Dr Omane Boamah, it is not Dr Omane Boamah who should prove that it is wrong. It is for that media house to prove that indeed, this thing exists, so we advised him to proceed against the media house and then the media house will have the responsibility of producing what they think is the Botchwey report then give them the source.”

No Discussion

When NDC deputy General Secretary in-charge of Operations, Koku Anyidoho, was called on Hello FM yesterday over the report, he declined to discuss the content.

Mr. Asiedu Nketia himself had earlier declined to discuss the report on the same network before switching to Citi FM to accuse the government of instigating the publications.

Allotey Jacobs Concedes

Interesting, while Asiedu Nketia was denying it, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, Central Regional chairman of the NDC, confirmed yesterday on Peace Fm in Accra that the media publications of the Botchwey report are authentic.

According to him, what is being published had been presented to the NDC National Executive Committee (NEC) members at a meeting and so there was no need to deny it.

He blamed some unknown persons at the party’s headquarters for the leakage of the report - which was kept like a state secret.

Allotey Jacobs believes some entities within the NDC are scheming to cause a "civil war" in the party.

Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo show,' he feared the worst thing might happen if such was the behaviour of some party members.

According to him, he suspects the portions of the Kwesi Botchwey report had been released to the media as a grand scheme to stir agitations in the NDC.

"Some aspects of what is being discussed in the public domain or in the media domain, some aspects of it, are true . . . I’m suspecting that the media is approaching some of our constituency, regional and national executives because the media is trying to unlock the Kwesi Botchwey report to make a fuss about it.

". . I’m suspecting that some people are talking to the press and it’s an agenda to create a kind of a civil war in the party," he observed.

Former National Organiser of the NDC, Yaw Boateng Gyan, who wants to stage a comeback, also admitted that the leaked document is true, after initially disputing it.

After he had been confronted with overwhelming evidence, Mr Boateng Gyan toed the line of Allotey Jacobs and ate the humble pie, conceding to the authenticity of the publications.

Mahama’s Intervention

In the ensuing debate, former President Mahama, whom the report indicts heavily for wrecking his own second term bid, appeared to mock NDC’s political opponents and the media over the publications.

He posted on Twitter - a social media network - yesterday that “It appears ‘KB report’ has been adopted by some media as the new handbook for any challenge facing GH,” adding, “In the event of crisis, open any page and quote. Lol!”

Strangely, ex-President Mahama held a meeting with his former appointees sometime in April and conceded that he should be blamed for the NDC’s defeat.

NDC HAD 200 CARS FOR JOURNALISTS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

The Kwesi Botchwey report, which captures how the National Democratic Congress (NDC) embarrassingly lost the 2016 elections, states that the party offered 200 cars for grabs by journalists.

Interestingly, according to the report, only a few members of the then presidential press corps benefited from the car largesse.

“Only four out of the 34 members of the Presidential Press Corps were given vehicles from a pool of about 200 vehicles available for distribution to the press corps and others,” the report, which the NDC is keeping like a secret document but is leaking, reveals.

DAILY GUIDE learnt that the lucky recipients came from the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and a Radio Gold reporter.

The presidential press corps was also described as a privilege club by President John Mahama’s trusted buddy, Stan Dogbe.

“Presidential press corps was told by Stan Dogbe that they were not part of the ‘system’ and that they were privileged to be part of the presidential press corps,” the report states.

According to the report, quarterly stipend meant for the press corps was not disclosed until August 30, 2016.

“President Mahama’s in-house communication team was squandering resources of the President meant for communication strategy,” it says.

It also highlights the maltreatment of the journalists assigned to the presidency.

“Ill-treatment of the media; no respect for the media,” the report added.

Planting Stories

It is also emerging that it was Stan Dogbe, the trusted aide of John Dramani Mahama, who was writing stories and ‘pushing’ them to the pro-NDC media outlets, popularly called ‘rented press,’ for publication.

He is also said to have even gone to the extent of banning publications on the then second lady, Matilda Amissah-Authur, wife of Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Authur.

The 65-page Executive Summary of the 455-page report says on Page 27 that “Stan Dogbe writes stories and pushes them through NDC media,” adding on Page 28 that the powerful Mahama aide “literally banned publications on second lady.”

According to the report, the 13-member committee engaged some personnel in the media and that provided them “a window into the state of the party’s relations with the media,” which it claims was ‘ill-treated.’

“There was a disconnect between the media, party and the government communications machinery,” the report says on Page 26, adding, “There was a ‘breakdown of communication’ and the entire communication structure was put on social media.”

It points out, “NDC disrespected its own media,” and also holds that NDC was intolerant of the media.”

The report maintains that media houses that were allegedly ‘hostile’ to the NDC as a party were preferred ones that the Mahama government dealt with and neglected the party’s own media.

“NDC sponsored pro-NPP media who painted themselves as neutral,” the report says, adding, “NDC had no patience to build a neutral station.”

It adds, “NDC did not respect its media and the party respects those who openly attack them.

 “There was lack of proper media coordination in the regions. President Mahama’s in-house communication team was squandering resources of the president meant for communication strategy.”

It indicates, for instance, that Bridge FM, reportedly owned by Kwabena Bobie Ansah - one of the NDC media personalities -  was not operating because of electricity bill, although the report notes that the party used that station at Atimpoku on the Adomi Bridge to win the Asuaogyaman seat.

“Bridge FM is currently down because of GH¢50,000 electricity bill after it used it to campaign to win the Asuogyaman seat for the NDC,” the report observes on Page 28.

Media Snub

The poor treatment of journalists attached to the presidency as captured in the report, indicates that the former president, for reasons best known to him, never met the journalists who were involved in a fatal accident at Afienya on their way from Ho, where Mr Mahama had attended an EP Church programme.

The Botchwey report says that President Mahama “never met his own presidential press corps,” adding that “quarterly stipend meant for the press corps was not disclosed until August 20, 2015” - the very day the journalists were involved in the accident.

That gory accident on Thursday, August 20, 2015, claimed the life of Samuel Nuamah - who was the presidential correspondent for Ghanaian Times - while other reporters sustained various degrees of injury.

Samuel Nuamah left a young family of a wife and child behind.

Sources said some of the reporters who covered the former president appeared before the Kwesi Botchwey committee to vent out their frustrations for what they claimed to be maltreatment by John Mahama for failing to commiserate with them by meeting them after such traumatic incident.

Even a report on the cause of the accident was never disclosed to the public.

 The report also singled out Stanislav Xoexe Dogbe, who was unofficial director of communications for ‘editing’ money given to journalists who covered the presidency.

According to the report, “Stan Dogbe ‘edited’ money meant for victims of the accident involving the Presidential Press Corps, from GH¢50,000 that was supposed to be given them to GH¢5,000 and others got GH¢10,000.”