GYEEDA report: Government directs AG to prosecute culprits
President John Dramani Mahama has affirmed the government's resolve to prosecute persons identified to have been involved in financial malfeasance in the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Authority (GYEEDA) report.
Advertisement
''We have started the process of restructuring GYEEDA and I have requested the Attorney General's office to sanction any persons identified to have been involved in wrongdoing in the GYEEDA affair,'' he said.
The President was addressing the opening session of a three-day conference of the African Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (AAACA) in Accra yesterday.
The conference, attended by heads of anti-corruption institutions in Africa, is to consolidate the gains made since the first conference in June, 2011 in Burundi.
Participants would adopt a constitution for the association and elect members of its Executive Committee, at the end of the current conference.
GYEEDA
Following allegations of questionable partnerships between GYEEDA and some service providers, the government set up a committee to investigate its operations.
The committee has since presented its report to President Mahama.
Consequently, the President tasked his advisors to review the report and had since asked the security agencies to prosecute offenders.
Other Trending Stories
In the medium term, he said, action was under way to put in place a better legislative and administrative framework for GYEEDA ''so that the public can have the best value for the monies spent on this all-important project''.
Corruption
President Mahama affirmed the government's resolve to expose corruption and prosecute offenders over the next four years.
He said the fight against corruption was on top of the list of the priorities that were set in the governance rubric at the retreat he held with ministers and deputy ministers in Accra last Saturday.
He said the government would work in close collaboration with other African countries and institutions, to effectively fight corruption in Ghana and Africa.
Legislation on Corruption
On Ghana, President Mahama said the country had passed anti-corruption legislation, including the Whistle Blowers Act, the Public Procurement Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
The Right to Information Bill was before Parliament while the Witness Protection Bill was also being worked on by the Attorney General's Office, he added.
The Code of Conduct for Public Office holders was also approved by the Cabinet last week.
President Mahama made reference to the recent World Bank report that said Africa lost 150 billion annually as a result of corruption, which translated into about 25 per cent of the continent’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He, therefore stressed the need for Africa to work together to fight it.
CHRAJ Commissioner
The Commissioner of CHRAJ, Ms Lauretta Vivian Lamptey, called on African countries to employ the necessary mechanisms to prevent, detect, punish and eradicate corruption and related offences in the public and private sectors.
The President of the Interim Steering Committee of AAACA, Dr Jean Baptiste Elias, said corruption had assumed alarming proportions in Africa over the last decade, and stressed the need for countries to adopt strategies to fight the canker.
By Musah Yahaya Jafaru/Daily Graphic/Ghana