Deputy Minister Exonarated Over Bribery

?As Author Of Petition Against Him Is Exposed For Forgery

Mr. Daniel Dugan deputy Minister for Women and Children?s Affairs (WCA) has parried into the dustbin accusations leveled against him that, he was bribing his way to become NPP Parliamentary candidate for the Shai-Osudoku constituency. According to him if Hans Nartey (the petitioner) who is the constituency organizer and coordinator of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) at the Dangme East District could forge signatures of some party executives at the constituency in a petition to the national chairman of the NPP, then it calls for examination of his conduct at the NYEP post.

In his response to the petition which was published by THE SUN last week, the deputy Minister expressed surprise that a gift from a government official was suddenly tagged a bribe, and also how meetings which were held in public were also tagged secret meetings.

He said he was astonished that Nartey, who had been a beneficiary of gifts and has on countless times received gifts from him could turn round to accuse him of bribery.

In a related development Messrs. Isaac Amanor and Felix Osafo, the constituency Treasurer and Youth Organizer respectively whose signatures appeared on the petition accusing the deputy Minister of bribing the polling stations? chairpersons have disassociated themselves from the petition. In separate statements both Amanor and Osafo indicated that their signatures were forged by Nartey, the author of the petition and accused him of lawlessness and playing mischief.

Read full statement by the Minister In response to the story

Re- MINISTER ACCUSED OF BRIBERY

When does a gift from a top government official and for that matter a minister of state constitute a bribe? A long list of gifts I gave since I became a Deputy Minister include: A GH? 1,300.00 laptop by my wife and I to Ms. Comfort Amarkie formerly of Holy Child School for winning bronze at last year?s World Science Quiz in Brazil. Payment of a full year?s fees for three pupils attending a school in the Agblogbloshie Market. Offering of gifts of drinks and cash to the chiefs at every festival. Donation of two bags of rice, four gallons of cooking oil, two bottles of schnapps and GH?100.00 to the family of two young persons who were killed by lightening at Tsumkpo in the Osudoku area. Are these bribes? When The SUN newspaper on Monday October 22, 2007 brought out a front page story Deputy Minister Accused of Bribery, I received bashing from a section of the reading public, on the internet. I was surprised that I was not contacted by The SUN before the publication.

The issue however is not about The SUN, but about fellow party members who want to tarnish my image.

The SUN only reproduced portions of a letter written and signed by Messrs Hans Nartey, Isaac Amanor, Felix Safo and Madam Grace Teiko Tetteh Organizer, Treasurer, Youth Organizer and Women Organizer of the New Patriotic Party in Shai-Osudoku to the National Chairman of the Party, Mr. Mac Manu. In the said letter the four accused me of holding secret meetings with and bribing the polling station chairpersons with one piece of cloth and GH?10.00 each to woo them to my side and also instigated them to stand up against any imposition of Hon. Gloria Akuffo on the Constituency. The letter went on to say that my acts were dividing the Party and that I am not a true citizen of the land.

On the Ghanaweb, out of the twenty-two comments by readers, seventeen did bash H.E. President J.A. Kufuor, the NPP party and government and of course me.

One reader who chose to be called Gmaa had this plea: Hon DD please come out. Tell us it is not true. God bless us all. I sympathize with Gmaa and I want to tell whoever Gmaa might be that the truth is I gave ? piece of cloth and GH?10.00 to each of the polling station chairpersons who attended meetings I arranged for them. Gmaa in truth, such meetings were for only the polling station chairpersons who were to form the Electoral College at the Primaries. Additionally I gave cloth to any woman and paid the passage for anyone who attended. My intention was not to bribe but to assist my followers and all others.

It may interest you to note that when I met the Constituency Executives at Dodowa I gave each of them ? piece of cloth and GH?15.00. Hans, Grace, Felix and Isaac received their share with elated joy. Anyone can guess why they refused to state this in the letter.

Hans and Grace have never supported my candidature as is very evident since 2003, so why will I waste resources luring such persons into my camp. It is just customary to present gifts to people when you meet under such circumstances. More so I have been so concern about changing their conditions for the better ever since I worked in the area as bank officer in charge of the rice growers at the Kpong Irrigation Project. Those days in the late 90?s I assisted the farmers and their families in various ways incidentally with Hans also benefiting. Could this be constituted as bribe? As a reward of my selfless services the Paramount Chief, Nene Klagbordjor Animle co-opted me into the Traditional Council. My obsession to alleviate the poverty of the farmers led me to offer tractor services to everyone in the constituency irrespective of their political leanings at least two-thirds of the normal rate. Is this a bribe?

While people are looking at my acts of generosity as acts of malfeasance, I ask what is wrong with giving a piece of cloth to someone who needs it and knowing that there could be fifty-fifty chances of that person supporting you? I am amazed that holding publicly announced open meetings with polling station executives at public places could be said to be secret meetings. So why at all did Hans Nartey lead a team of four constituency executive members to write this letter?

In the very first place two of them, Messrs Felix Safo and Isaac Amanor have strongly denied knowledge of that letter and have writing letters in which they protested the unsolicited use of their names and the illegal and forgery signing of their names by Mr. Hans Nartey to give that letter to the Party Chairman Mac Manu dated October 5, 2007 some credibility.

Hans and Grace as stated earlier have resolved never to have me as the Party?s choice of candidate, since 2003. I have nevertheless shown great love and respect to them and we were very close with the two among others paying visits to my office whenever they came to Accra. They never left without money for their transport back home. However when I decided to join the race for a parliamentary candidate for the NPP the two among others shun my company and misconstrue any good deed I make as acts of malfeasance.

The more they go about destroying me the more people rally behind me since both of them have created a bad image of themselves and contributed a lot to our defeat at polls in 2004. I am restrained to further clarify this last statement. During our vetting, and we were three applicants aspiring to be parliamentary candidates, I stated that I never accept imposition of a candidate on the constituency this time round since it will not help us. This was in the presence of the National, Regional and Constituency executives. I carried this message on to the polling station executives when it became evident that there were moves to impose one of us on the constituency. Hans and Teiko became very irritated about this.

When our date for the Primaries was postponed indefinitely, 45 of the 70 polling station chairmen sent a resolution to the Party Chairman calling for a new date and rejecting any imposition. Hans and Teiko knowing they have lost grounds, wrote this recent letter and criminally forged others signatures to beef their support for imposition.

On my tribal links with Dangme, I wish to state a fact that I belong to a clan in Osudoku and my maternal grandmother, Eva Nye who was from Osuwem settled in Akuse. A lot of Dangmes have Akan surnames due to intermarriages and settlement by indigene Akans into the Dangme society. Names like Otumfuo, Yeboah, Amankwa, Ntiamoah, Nyarko and Amoako are common names.

Dugan is fast been acknowledged as a Dangme name.

Other Dangmes like the Dziwornus and Ocanseys are ancestrally linked with Ewe and Fanti. In Dangme names can be deceptive.

If Hans Nartey a Co-ordinator of the NYEP at the district could forge signatures on a harmless letter to the Party Chairman, then it calls for examination of his conduct at NYEP post.

HON. DANIEL DUGAN DEPUTY MINISTER/ MOWAC