I’ll deal with officials who don’t implement NACAP — Prez Mahama
The President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has served notice of his intention to sanction any public official who fails to implement the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) which has been developed to fight corruption.
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The NACAP is a national plan of action to combat corruption in a more strategic and co-ordinated manner in the next 10 years.
President Mahama, who sounded the caution in his State of the Nation Address to Parliament Thursday, said the country had made significant progress in the fight against corruption following the implementation of the NACAP.
Fight against corruption
He said the government had not relented in its fight against corruption and made reference to the scandal that hit the National Service Scheme (NSS), for which some directors were indicted for their involvement in various corrupt deals.
He said while 130 directors of the NSS were before court, scores of other directors had been dismissed.
He asked Parliament and the public to join forces with the Executive to fight corruption, stressing that that canker should not be left in the hands of the Executive alone to combat.
To prevent the recurrence of the corruption that embroiled the erstwhile Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) (now the Youth Employment Agency), President Mahama said since the YEA Bill was passed, measures had been put in place to ensure transparency in the execution of contracts by the agency.
Cash recovery
He told Parliament that GH¢50 million had been recovered from various organisations which were wrongfully paid money by GYEEDA in the award of contracts.
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Touching on some concerns raised by the management of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) over an audit report, President Mahama said a comprehensive report on the audit was ready and would be published in due course.
Bus rebranding
On the brouhaha that greeted the GH¢3.6 million bus rebranding scandal, he said GH¢300,000, being the first instalment of GH¢1.9 million, had been paid to the Attorney-General’s Department.
He recalled how the Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah, had ordered Smarttys Management Limited to pay the money back to the state after investigations by the Attorney-General had revealed that the contract had been inflated.
President Mahama acknowledged that the country would have saved GH¢1.5 million if proper procedure had been adhered to in the award of the contract.
President lauds Chief Justice
On the judicial scandal, President Mahama commended the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, and the judicial committee that investigated the scandal for resisting attempts by some of the implicated judges to malign the ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who had exposed the rot.
For him, the gesture was an indication that Ghana still had men of integrity on the Bench, in spite of the exposé which smeared the Judiciary.
“We still have many judges on the Bench who are upright and are of great integrity. I wish to commend the Chief Justice for her work on the Anas investigation and wish to assure her that my government will give her all the necessary support to enable her to fight corruption in the Judiciary,” the President said.