The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on President Mills to exhibit concrete commitment to fight corruption and refrain from lukewarm attitude and angry exhortations towards reported cases.
It said the President had consistently failed to take tangible actions after all the investigations by Mr Anas Aremeyaw Anas and that it was the NPP’s fear that similar attitude would be meted out to the recent expose of corrupt practices at the Tema Harbour.
Addressing a press conference in Accra today, Nana Akomea, the Director of Communications for the NPP 2012 Campaign, said the NPP was not blaming the Mills government for the corrupt practices of the custom officials but wanted action to be taken on all such reported cases.
He noted that the party’s fear was borne out of the fact that nothing had come out of the previous two exposures of corrupt practices of revenue and security personnel at the country’s western borders and heinous crimes against children at the Osu Children’s Home.
Regarding the rot and corrupt practices by revenue and security personnel at the country’s western borders, he described the government’s reaction as “nothing short of scandalous”.
He said the most worrying part of the issue was that the investigative journalist provided concrete evidence of state officials facilitating the smuggling of cocoa, a criminal activity which cost the country huge foreign exchange.
“However, just last week, just as the President was preparing to make his unannounced visits to the Tema Port, the 14 security personnel who were at the centre of the alleged cocoa smuggling scandal were being freed for the second time for want of prosecution,” Nana Akomea said.
He said the court had to release the accused persons for the second time not because the prosecution did not have evidence, but that the Attorney General and his lawyers simply failed to repeatedly show up in the court and present the evidence.
He explained that on the exposures at the Osu Children’s Home, “the political reaction sought to attack Mr Anas’s integrity. His motives were questioned and his findings were said to be doctored. Eventually some committee was set up by the responsible ministry.”
Nana Akomea alleged that the political reaction had been so discouraging that there was hardly any collaboration between the committee and Mr Anas and that since then there had been no new policy initiative by the Mills-Mahama administration to protect Ghana’s children.
“Can we say that the Mills-Mahama government is serious about building a better Ghana where the price of corruption is high and unattractive. This simple case has proven too much for the Attorney General’s Department and its collaborators,” he said.
He said with Anas’ latest expose of corruption and inefficiency at the Tema Port, “the official reactions seem to be following the same lines of harangue and exhortations from Presidency and other officials that is not followed by concrete action.”
Nana Akomea recalled President Mills visit to the Tema Harbour and his usual exhortations directed at the customs officials
He quoted President Mills at the Tema Harbour when he stated that “ every day we hear of reports of bribe taking... and that people go to work at customs and within three years they are putting up buildings”.
He added that it was obvious that the President knew all about the daily happenings at the Tema Port, it was, therefore, curious that the President would say that he was waiting for the Anas’ video before he would act.
Nana Akomea said for custom officials putting up houses within three years and alleged that there were several political appointees in President Mills’ government putting up houses within two years which had not been investigated.
On the President’s appeal to the judiciary, he pointed out that the judiciary could only convict on the basis of ample evidence.
He added but when such evidence were available, such as in Mr Anas’ work, and the Attorney General’s Department failed to go to the court with the evidence, then the judiciary might not be able to hand down convictions.
He said instead of telling Ghanaians actions he had taken about such revelation by Mr Anas, President Mills had decided to issue warnings to officials at the Driver and Vehicle Licence Authority (DVLA) and custom officials at the Aflao border.
He described the President as the Chief watchman and that just as former President Kufuor did by introducing the GCNET system and the computerisation of the DVLA operations that reduced corruption, he must act now.
Nana Akomea said the next NPP administration would introduce a policy for a crack team of undercover investigators which would strengthen the kind of investigative work being undertaken by Mr Anas.
••• But NDC blames NPP for at Tema Port
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has stated that the recent startling revelation of reports of corruption at the Tema Harbour was an indictment on the Kufuor Administration.
“The NDC is, however, shocked that though the revelation of corruption at the Tema Habour in Anas’s video largely occurred during the Kufour-led regime, the NPP is mischievously creating the impression as though the NDC–led government is blameable when clearly the report rather indicts the NPP era”, it said.
A statement signed by Mr Richard Quashigah, the National Propaganda Secretary of the NDC, said it was unacceptable for some NPP members to link President Mills and the head of the Customs Exercise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to the stinking bribery and corruption uncovered.
It commended Mr. Anas, Aremeyaw Anas, Deputy Editor of the Crusading Guide Newspaper, for his recent investigative report as well as the Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Dufour, for collaborating with Mr. Anas to investigate and analyse the situation at the GPHA since 2005.
The statement also condemned Mr P. C Appiah- Ofori, the Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, for “also displaying immaturity and ignorance by condemning the President over the same report.”
It said if this twisting of facts was not hypocrisy and mischief, then it only exposed the NPP stalwarts as “ignorant and lacking analytic minds to understand the sterling journalistic work”.
The statement noted that the willingness of the Mills government to collaborate with Anas for this project was in itself a demonstration of a courageous commitment to fight the canker for which President Mills should be lauded.
“The leadership of the NDC is reliably informed that the vile NPP propaganda machinery has fed their spokespeople and organised teams with the well-rehearsed distortion of facts in Mr. Anas’s report.
“Reliable reports are that they are moving round the rural areas and creating the impression to the Ghanaians that this government perpetuated such acts of corruption as exposed by Anas’s video. This is not only mischievously unpatriotic, but also undermines national progress,” it alleged.
The statement said the distortion of facts by the NPP was not surprising because the NPP had not been able to formulate any inspirational message and alternate programme to sell to voters in the face of the sterling performance on many fronts by the Mills-led government.
“The NDC wishes to remind the NPP that their understanding of ‘Zero Tolerance for Corruption’ which meant looting and forcefully owning state property is still very fresh in peoples’ minds,” it said.
It wondered whether “it was true that the NPP prevented Mr. Anas from pursuing a similar investigation at a time the NPP was in office. Perhaps Mr. Kwadwo Impianim, the then Chief of Staff at the Presidency and Mr. Anas are in the best position to answer this question”.
It commended Mr. Anas, Aremeyaw Anas, Deputy Editor of the Crusading Guide Newspaper, for his recent investigative report.
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