February 28

WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
DAILY HERITAGE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2018
People rarely succeed unless they
have fun in what they are doing.
—Dale Carnegie
Majority of Ghanaians see govt officials as corrupt- CDD report
• READ FROM PAGE 2
the local governance level.
This, he explained, will be right
and effective way of ensuring that
development is spread across the
country.
“If we have a district where we
have a member of the opposition
occupying that position, he or she
will make sure there’s development
at that level so that they can use it
for campaign during the next election
period.
“There will be the argument of
sabotaging, but in that case it will affect
the leaders where one will ask
for accountability,” he said.
Dr Eric Oduro Osae, Dean of
Graduate Students and Research, Institute
for Democratic Governance,
urged Ghanaians to persistently hold
people in office accountable for
their actions.
According to him, there should
be frequent sensitisation programmes
for the electorate about the
jobs of local authorities.
This, he argued, will equip them
with the knowledge to hold the officials
accountable and ensure good
governance.
Deputy Minister’s
response
Deputy Minister for Local Governance,
Mr O. B. Amoah disclosed
that the government had drawn a
programme to ensure that they
amend the constitution which will
allow Ghanaians to elect MMDCEs
by the end of the year.
He added that they are on course
to meet the requirements to achieve
their target by the end of the year.
“What is critical for us based on
the finding is the fact that there is a
constitutional requirement that at
such referenda, 40% of voters
should have turned out, and then
75% of those who turn out should
vote for that particular requirement,
whether MMDCEs should be
elected,” he said.
On corruption, Mr Amoah said
the government is constantly training
local government officials to
know what they are required to do
under law.
“Most of the people in the system
don’t know what they’re required
to do under the law. When an
officer is not in the system again,
you inform authorities so that he or
she is not paid otherwise they become
ghost workers which is against
the law,” he told the press.
NDC begs for RTI law
BY PHILIP ANTOH
Philip.antoh@dailyheritage.com.gh
THE NATIONAL
Democratic Congress
(NDC) has described
the appointment of
Mr Martin A. B. K.
Amidu as the first
Special Prosecutor as a roadshow.
According to the party, the appointment
of Mr Amidu is meaningless
until the passage into law of
the Right to Information Bill (RTI)
which will give the citizenry the
power to demand information to
be used to prosecute thieves caught
up in any wrongdoing.
Speaking at a packed press conference
yesterday, the general secretary
of the party, Mr Johnson
Asiedu Nketia said “without the
passage of the RTI bill, the work
of the Special Prosecutor will be
defective.”
Mr Nketia, popularly known in
political circles as General Mosquito,
said for the work of the Special
Prosecutor to be successful and
meaningful, people must be able to
walk to any government institution
or agency to demand for information
without any qualm and officials
are also obliged to give out
information.
“But currently, as I speak to you
now, the RTI bill has been withdrawn
from Parliament and no one
knows when it is going to be relayed.
Does this give the impression
that the Akufo-Addo
government wants to fight corruption?
What it is now is that the
• To catch thieves, describes
appointment of Amidu as a roadshow
•Johnson Asiedu Nketia (M), General Secretary of NDC being flanked by Samuel Ofosu Ampofo (L),
1st Vice Chairman and Kofi Adams (R), Deputy General Secretary at the press conference
hands of the Special Prosecutor
are tight and it is a lame excuse,” he
stated.
Drop in CPI report
General Mosquito was speaking
in relation to the 2017 Transparency
International Corruption
Perception Index (CPI) which
scored Ghana 40% and 81st position,
a drop of 11 points from the
2016 score of 70th position and a
percentage point of 43.
He said all indications pointed
to the fact that the Akufo-Addo led
NPP government within a space of
one year had failed to put in place
the necessary measures to at least
maintain the country’s position or
even perform better. “This disastrous
showing is the worst performance
Ghana has chalked in the
last six years or since 2012.”
NPP responsible
General Mosquito said instead
of the NPP government accepting
and working towards bettering the
lots of the country to improve investor
confidence, the government
is rather blaming the previous government
while records clearly
show that out of the nine data
sources used, only two or 22%
were traceable to 2016.
“The remaining seven items or
88% emanated from 2017. This
means that an overwhelming majority
of data sources used in this
survey were based on happenings
in the first year of President
Akufo-Addo’s government. So the
assertion that the 2017 CPI corruption
report was mostly the happening
of the previous
government was completely false,”
he added.
Corruption scandals
The general secretary revealed
that the Akufo-Addo led NPP government
had lost the moral
grounds in the fight against corruption
because his government is
too early to be tainted with too
many corruption issues such as the
BOST/ MOVINPINA scandal, the
2.25 billion dollar Ken Bond, the
GH¢ 22m worth of pre-mix fuel
saga, cash-for-seat scandal and
many others where the President
had downplayed the effect of such
all important corruption issues.
“We are also aware that the
Akufo-Addo government has become
the butt of jokes and derision
in both the foreign and local
business community for the aggressive
manner in which ministers’
demand and collect bribe or
kickback from contractors and
other service providers,” he
stated.
He added that for the first time
in the history of the country, a
President had appointed her own
daughter to a government position
and also a woman he had a
child with as the Ambassador to
the Czech Republic. “This is an
addition to the army of cousins,
nieces and other relatives in various
positions in the public sector.”
Commitment to
fight corruption
The NDC scribe said there was an
urgent need by the NPP government
to take up the fight against corruption
seriously and not reduce it to the creation
of the office of the Special
Prosecutor.
He, therefore, called on faithbased
organisations, media and moral
society to rise up and demand accountability
from the NPP government
the same way they demanded
accountability under the previous
government.