Fighting corruption: how Nana Akufo-Addo has performed so far

Opinions on Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Columnist: Raymond Ablorh

2020-09-16

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William Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo entered the 2016 presidential election with notorious force on the corruption billboard.

He is sold as an incorruptible and no-nonsense fighter against corruption, although he had no tangible record of fighting corruption uniquely in the corruption-plagued administration of John Kufuor, of which he is part first as Attorney General and then as Minister of Relations Exteriors.

He promised a change of hope to protect the public purse; to fight corruption in his own administration and recover stolen Ghanaian money from officials in the previous administration.

To this end, he promised to establish and resource the Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) and strengthen all anti-corruption institutions.

To emphasize his seriousness, he came to contemplate using Anas’s terrifying investigative methods to combat corruption in government.

However, in power, when his people attacked Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his methods to do what he was praised in the opposition, President Nana Akufo-Addo was silent until Ahmed Suale, a user of the method, was perversely assassinated. the view.

Today, people wonder if he is the same man who campaigned against corruption in 2016.

The bees of corruption scandals have so stung the face of your administration that it is simply impossible to identify them in just four years. And Nana Akufo-Addo’s mouth is terribly swollen and she can’t even mention corruption anymore.

In the recent release of his 2020 Manifesto, the man who incessantly sang anti-corruption corus in 2016 could not enunciate a simple phrase to say how better he has fought successfully than his predecessors. It is absolutely nothing to show.

Since the day that former GFA administrator Kwesi Nyantakyi was caught on tape recounting how the president and some of his men could easily be bribed into turning all of Ghana over to foreigners, Nana Akufo-Addo has not shown that Nyantekyi ​​is wrong. handled corruption cases that arose in his administration.

Right under his nose, Charles Bissue was caught taking TIPS IN BUNDLES to facilitate mining operations at a time when the president has put his job on the line to fight Galamsey.

The serious and sensible leader could not, at least, remove him from the Presidency to save his face.

To the surprise of many Ghanaians, all the bribery collector did was resign as a member of the inter-ministerial anti-galamsey committee and continued to enjoy himself as a member of the presidential staff, while Nana Akufo-Addo pretended nothing had happened after referring the case. to one of its corruption deposits, the Special Prosecutor’s Office.

Of course, Nana Akufo-Addo kept her promise to establish the Special Prosecutor’s Office. This could be marked as prositive on your scorecard.

But, since the establishment of that office is not an end in itself and without resources and without providing an enabling environment, the officer could not function properly, could not go to bed after that office was created.

To borrow the president’s own words, since the Independent Prosecutor was appointed, he has performed no better than a professional Jeremiah.

The man who began to work with common sense without any framework and resources had constantly lamented how government officials deliberately frustrate him from fulfilling his mandate to the disappointment of well-intentioned citizens.

Now, he is more in his old occupation of writing epistles and book reviews than in the fight against corruption in the ruling party.

With all the corruption scandals plaguing this administration, the Special Prosecutor has been unable to successfully investigate and prosecute any of the easier cases as proof of how he is fighting the prevailing corruption in the government. His focus is not on what has been stolen from this administration.

This has created a huge integrity challenge for both the PS and the government in the fight against corruption.

Under Nana Akufo-Addo, mind-blowing scandals such as the PDS, the disappearance of galamsey excavators, the disappearance of tricycles, the Australian visa, BOST, the Egypt tournament, Kroll, fuel premix, Procurement Talent Discovery, NYA traffic light repairs and many more have affected the government. in less than four years.

None of these have been treated better than John Mahama’s unsatisfactory handling of the corruption scandals as we prepare for the 2020 elections.

What hurts many anti-corruption fighters and civil society organizations (CSOs) the most is how Nana Akufo-Addo continues to visibly fight the one man who gave Ghanaians hope that all was not lost in our fight against corruption. because he is being ripped in the flesh of his corrupt administration.

While it may be permissible and commensurate with precedence that you ask the Auditor General to go on leave, it is not beneficial to your image in government, especially when citizens know that your directive has more to do with the way the man Patriotically he fought against corruption and announced the evils of his administration.

Aside from the AG, almost all CSOs and anti-corruption citizens who treated respectfully in opposition by holding the incumbent accountable have become its enemies. That says a lot about his commitment to fighting corruption.

In addition, his government always announced huge figures in its budgets as allocations to anti-corruption institutions, but it rarely complied with that and gave much lower figures than announced while the Presidency is adequately resourced.

Next time you hear: “Chief Clearing Agent”, don’t think it necessarily has something to do with imports, exports, and ports. That’s the name that Nana Akufo-Addo acquired with his approach to fighting corruption in his government.

Since the PNP manifesto has nothing new or novel about the fight against corruption, my questions are:

Is this how they promised to fight corruption in government?

How much have they recovered from all the corruption scandals that they used as songs in the opposition and promised to get the money back for the nation? SADA, SUBAH, etc.?

How come they condemned the previous administration for doing a single vendor often only to get to do the same, if not worse? How different are you making your unique sourcing?

They punished the previous administration for not conducting value-for-money audits for government projects; Where are your value-for-money audit reports for our reading?

How much did Ghana lose in the PDS scandal and who is responsible? Why were they not investigated and prosecuted accordingly?

After firing the CEOs of the NYA, why wasn’t our money recovered like John Mahama did in the bus brand case?

Why was the Galamsey excavators case not investigated and the suspects prosecuted? Who are responsible for what happened?

How different will they fight corruption if they were re-elected?

What institutional reforms will you undertake to improve both preventive and curative approaches to fighting corruption in the bureaucracy?