Ghana Discovers Corruption in Commercial Quantity

Ghana Discovers Corruption in Commercial Quantity under Nana Addo is one of the messages making rounds on social media. Ron Strikker, Dutch Ambassador to Ghana was alleged to have said the goverment of the day should seek “Ghana Beyond Corruption”.

There seems to be no day without a new curruption scandal in Ghana. Each one of them ends up being swept under the carpet. The big bitter truth is that, politicians CANNOT presecute their own people caught engaging in such acts.

Mr Ron Strikker, Dutch Ambassador to Ghana had said in a widely circulated video that the government was implementing a Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda and he wondered why it was not implementing a Ghana Beyond Corruption Agenda. “Why not a Ghana Beyond Corruption,” he had asked.

Also read: Ghana’s Politics Stinks of Corruption

However, a private legal practitioner and member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Elikpilim Agbemava has described president Akufo-Addo’s approach to corruption fight as ordinary.

The failed NDC flagbearer hopeful says Mr. Akufo-Addo deserves no praise for saying he has tackled corruption better than his predecessor, Mr. John Mahama.

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While defending his inability to deal with corrupt appointees under his watch, Nana Akufo-Addo said “every single alleged act of corruption” levelled against any of his appointees was being or “has been investigated by independent bodies, such as CHRAJ, the CID, and, in some cases, by Parliament itself.”

Speaking at the 2019 Ghana Bar Association Conference in Takoradi, Western Region, President Akufo-Addo denied clearing his appointees of corrupt acts, saying it is not his job to clear or convict any person accused of wrongdoing, or of engaging in acts of corruption.

“My job is to act on allegations of corruption by referring to the issue or issues to the proper investigative agencies for the relevant enquiry and necessary action. That is exactly what has been done since I assumed the mantle of leadership on 7th January 2017. If an appointee is cleared of any wrongdoing, the evidence adduced and recommendations made by these agencies, after the investigations are concluded, are what clear the accused persons, not myself.

None of these agencies has ever indicated any pressure from the Executive over their investigations,” he explained.

But Mr. Agbemava believes President Akufo-Addo has woefully failed to crack the whip on his appointees who dabble in corruption, saying the action should not be about grammar and mere rhetorics.

“If you are accused of not dealing with corruption and all you do is defend yourself and say you are not corrupt, it shows that you do not understand the problem neither do you know what is expected of you. Apparently he does not understand the oath of the Presidential office,” Agbemava jabbed in a Facebook post sighted by XYZ News.

He educated the president to make the Auditor General’s report, that keeps exposing corrupt appointees every year, his “bible and workbook” and never depart from it if he is serious about graft fighting and wants to bring sanity into the public sector.

Akufo-Addo’s governance has been hit with major corruption scandals in the last 20 months, raising questions about the competency of a president who called his predecessor “incompetent” while in opposition.

Source: Newsghana24 | GhanaWeb